فَإِنْ لَمْ يَكُنْ عِنْدَهُ عِلْمُ ذَلِكَ وَلَمْ تَأْتِ رِوَايَةٌ صَحِيحَةٌ تُخْبِرُ أَنَّ هَذَا الرَّاوِيَ عَنْ صَاحِبِهِ قَدْ لَقِيَهُ مَرَّةً وَسَمِعَ مِنْهُ شَيْئًا، لَمْ يَكُنْ فِي نَقْلِهِ الْخَبَرَ عَمَّنْ رَوَى عَنْهُ عَلَى ذَلِكَ وَالْأَمْرُ كَمَا وَصَفْنَا حُجَّةٌ، وَكَانَ الْخَبَرُ عِنْدَهُ مَوْقُوفًا حَتَّى يَرِدَ عَلَيْهِ سَمَاعُهُ مِنْهُ لِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْحَدِيثِ، قَلَّ أَوْ كَثُرَ فِي رِوَايَةٍ مِثْلِ مَا وَرَدَ.
Translation: If he has no knowledge of that and no sound report comes establishing that this transmitter once met the person from whom he narrates and heard something from him, then, in the circumstances just described, his transmission of a report from that source is no proof according to the proponent. The report remains suspended in his judgment until evidence arrives that he heard something of hadith from that person—whether little or much—in a transmission of the kind mentioned.
Mawqūf here means “held in abeyance,” not the technical category of a Companion-statement report. “Little or much” modifies the amount of previously established hearing, not the number of future reports.