The Stages of the Emergence and Development of the Connotation the Narrator Al-Mastur among Al Muhaddithun

Abstract

This research addresses the stages of the emergence and development of the term “al mastūr” among hadith experts “al muhaddithun”. Its importance is shown by identifying the stages of the emergence of this term, and the extent to which it is affected by other schools. The research concluded that al mastūr narrator who is ‘adl “trustworthy” and al mastūr al-ḥāl "unknown in status," dosen’t fall under the parts of majhûl “ unknown” according to muhaddithun. However, the dispute of this issue did not appear among them except in the seventh century AH. Also, the interpretation of al mastūr as being adl al zāhir, and his adl al bāṭin is not known, is not among the interpretation of al muhadthin scholars. But it is the interpretation of the jurists and the fundamentalists, based on their requirement to recommend witnesses in secret and in public, that is, in other words al bāṭin “inward” or Ẓāhir “manifest”. The researcher reached these results by following the inductive approach in tracing the texts of the hadith scholars and their uses of the hidden over the centuries, and the descriptive analytical approach to show the aspects of its development among the people of hadith.