Islam > Glossary > Khbr al-waaḥid
Discover the meaning of the term Khbr al-waaḥid (خبر الْوَاحِد) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readIt is the hadith related by one, or two and more, so long as it has not reached fame and mass transmission (tawatur).
In language: what a single person relates, hence it is taken from its name. In technical usage: what does not combine the conditions of tawatur. In the jurists' custom: a report that has not entered the limit of notoriety and upon which no consensus has occurred accepting it, even if the transmitter be two, three or ten; it is said: what yields conjecture and invalidates its opposite, by a report that does not yield conjecture; and what exceeds three in transmission was named mustafid (widely reported). (Al-Tawqif, p. 306; Mizan al-Usul of al-Samarqandi, p. 431; Muntaha al-Wusul of Ibn al-Hajib, p. 71).
In language: what a single person relates.
It is the word of a single distinguished one, whether free or slave, Muslim or unbeliever, young or old, man or woman, upright or not upright; and the khabar al-wahid, among hadiths, is what is not mutawatir.