Mubham and the path to clarifying it
If the name of the narrator is not mentioned, such as one saying:
- أَخْبَرَنِيْ فُلَان – so and so informed me; or
- شَيْخ – a shaykh; or
- رَجُل – a man; or
- بَعْضُهُمْ – some of them; or
- إِبْنُ فُلَان – the son of so and so; or
- ثِقَة – a thiqah narrator
Then all of these will be termed mubham.[1]
The name of the narrator can be inferred through looking at another path where the name is identified.
This is also a form of mursal[2] and its ruling takes the same ruling of mursal according to the fuqaḥā and usūliyyīn, rather this is the view of scholars from the early generations.[3] The view of the latter day scholars is that this narration is muttaṣil (connected), with a majhūl narrator in the sanad.
[1] Literally; unintelligible, abstract. Thus, muhmal is where the name of the narrator is known, but the narrator is unclear. Whereas mubham is the case where the name of the narrator is not mentioned.
[2] Mursal can have two meanings: (1) where the narrator is dropped anywhere in the chain, (2) the ṣaḥābah is dropped.
[3] Mutaqaddimīn