Discover the meaning of the term Al-shadh (شاذ) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readWhat is contrary to the analogy (qiyas), without regard to the scarcity or abundance of its occurrence.
It is of two kinds: accepted shadh and rejected shadh. The accepted shadh is that which comes contrary to the analogy yet is accepted by the eloquent and the rhetoricians; the rejected shadh is that which comes contrary to the analogy and is not accepted by the eloquent and the rhetoricians. The difference between the shadh, the nadir (rare), and the da'if (weak): the shadh is abundant in the Arabs' speech but contrary to the analogy; the nadir is rare in occurrence yet on the analogy; the da'if is that whose ruling has not reached establishment.
It is that whose occurrence is rare, yet does not conform to the analogy.
It is what is contrary to the analogy without regard to the rarity or abundance of its occurrence. The nadir is that whose occurrence is rare even if it is on the analogy.
An active participle from shadhdha shadhudhan: to stand apart from others. The shadh also: what contravenes the rule or the analogy; the shadh: he who contravenes the group or parts from them. Al-Jurjani defined it: what is contrary to the analogy without regard to the rarity or abundance of its occurrence. The shadh of hadith: that having a single chain, whether its authority is trustworthy or not; what is from the untrustworthy is abandoned, not accepted; what is from the trustworthy is suspended, not argued from. Ibn Hajar defined it: what an accepted transmitter relates contrary to one stronger than he; he said: this is the relied-upon view. Benefit (the difference between shadh, nadir, and da'if): the shadh is abundant in the Arabs' speech but contrary to the analogy.
What a trustworthy narrator relates contrary to what the people relate.