The evidential value of testimony is not decided merely by a source’s good reputation. Ask whether acceptance rests on favorable trust or on a stronger basis that establishes certainty for the relevant claim.
Ordinary accepted report: a practitioner’s guidance yielding a preponderant judgment.
Mutawātir report: transmission satisfying the stated conditions for certainty.
Within the source’s theological premises: an authenticated prophetic report has a status different from ordinary rhetorical testimony.
These distinctions prevent both the inflation of every trusted claim into certainty and the reduction of every kind of testimony to mere opinion.