# Tawatur

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Sunni$^1$Kutub Al-Sittah ("The Six Books") Sahih al-Bukhari صحيح البخاري Sahih Muslim صحيح مسلم Sunan Abi Dawud سنن أبي داود Sunan al-Tirmidhi سنن الترمذي Sunan al-Nasa'i سنن النسائي Sunan ibn Majah سنن ابن ماجه
Others Al-Adab al-Mufrad Al-Jami al-Kamil Kanz al-Ummal Kitab al-Athar Majma al-Zawa'id Mu'jam al-Awsat Mu'jam al-Kabeer Mu'jam al-Saghir Musannaf Abd al-Razzaq Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah Musnad Abu Awanah Musnad Abu Hanifa Musnad Abu Ya'la Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal Musnad_al-Bazzar Musnad al-Shafi'i Musnad al-Siraj Musnad al-Firdous Musnad al-Tayalisi Musnad Humaidi Musnad Ishaq ibn Rahwayh Mustadrak ala al-Sahihayn Muwatta Imam Malik Sahih Ibn Hibban Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah Sahifah Hammam ibn Munabbih Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya Sunan al-Kubra Bayhaqi Sunan al-Wusta Bayhaqi Sunan al-Daraqutni Sunan al-Darimi Sunan Nasa'i al-Kubra Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur Shu'ab al-Iman Tahdhib al-Athar Targhib wal Tarhib
ShiaAl-Kutub Al-Arb'ah ("The Four Books") Kitab al-Kafi الكتاب الكافي Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih من لا يحضره الفقيه Tahdhib al-Ahkam تهذیب الاحکام Al-Istibsar الاستبصار
Others Al-Wafi Wasa'il al-Shia Mustadrak al-wasa'il Bihar al-Anwar Nahj al-Balagha The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya Risalah al-Huquq Sahifah of al-Ridha Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah Da'a'im al-Islam Uyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha Haqq al-Yaqeen Ain Al-Hayat Al-Ghadir
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Jami Sahih
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$^1$ - Books also revered by Ahmadiyya :
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Tawātur is concept in Islamic epistemology that refers to the certainty achieved about a piece of information when that information has been shown to have been corroborated to such an extent that it becomes inconceivable for it to have been created through collusion. The idea originated in Greek empiricism, but was imported into and refined within Islamic literature. It was widely used in disciplines including in Islamic philosophy, theology, law, the Quranic and hadith sciences, and grammar. As a technical term, tawātur was first used in circles of rationalists and Mutazilites as early as the ninth century CE. Later, it spread into Ash'arism, Twelver Shi'ism, Sufism, and more. Among those traditions that have been considered to have been transmitted by tawātur include the Quran, the five daily prayers (Salah), tradition that Muhammad flew to Jerusalem on the back of a winged horse in the night (the Isra' and Mi'raj), and Muhammad's miracle of feeding large groups of people from small portions of food and water.
At first, tawatur was not used by the early hadith folk because it was believed that after the application of other methods, the additional evidence from corroboration would only incrementally increase confidence in the authenticity of a report. However, by the eleventh century, tawatur came to be adopted as a response to the pressure from Mu'tazilite skepticism. The term mutawātir came to refer to a mass-transmitted hadith, which provided necessary knowledge or was certain in its authenticity. The certainty arises from the belief that the numerous transmitters of the hadith cannot conspire to fabricate the report, nor can they collectively err because of their role in preserving Islamic traditions that goes back to the time of Muhammad. Formally, a hadith becomes mutawatir when it is thought to passed through a plenitude of transmitters through every level of the isnad (chain of transmitters). A hadith can be considered mutawatir in its exact wording (mutawātir lafẓi), or in its meaning (mutawātir maʿnawi). This was the highest classification of a hadith, above mashhūr ("well-known, widespread") and then fard (transmissions through one transmitter at a time).
There were many different definitions involved in the precise criteria for applying the method of tawatur. At first, plenty of debate existed over the exact number of independent channels needed to apply tawatur, with values ranging from only two to seventy. As early as the tenth century, some thought that there should be no strict numerical cutoff, and this view eventually dominated. Another question was whether something could be mass-practiced to the point that it could be considered to have been transmitted without tawātur even without a chain of transmitters. Finally, there was a centuries-long debate about whether any hadith at all could be considered mutawatir. Furthermore, several situations occurred where it was argued by some scholars argued that even a tradition considered mutawatir could be challenged or rejected.