Increased caution in acting on hadiths arises from increased knowledge and piety. Undoubtedly, most hadiths are ahad reports, which have no authority; because they lead to conjecture, which is not sufficient for proving the truth. Moreover, most ahad reports are weak in their chains of narrators, and they are layers of darkness, one above another. Therefore, only those lacking knowledge and piety are careless in acting on hadiths, contrary to what many people imagine; because they think that knowledge and piety require acting on any report attributed to the Prophet or to one of his Ahl al-Bayt under the title of “hadith.” However, in reality, many of these reports have not been issued from them, and they have been only fabricated against them intentionally or mistakenly. Clearly, acting on such reports is not considered acting on their words, but rather acting on the words of their hypocritical enemies or their ignorant friends. This is the opposite of knowledge and piety!

Yes, there is nothing wrong with some leniency in acting on hadiths that fall under the category of morals, such as those that command truthfulness, trustworthiness, good character, suppressing anger, forgiving people, kindness to parents, feeding the needy, and honoring guests, or those that prohibit lying, backbiting, reviling, slander, envy, and gossip. This is also the case with hadiths that confirm the beliefs and rulings that are known from the Quran and the Sunnah; because even if these hadiths have not been issued from the Prophet and his Ahl al-Bayt with the same wording, they have been certainly issued from them with the same meaning. Therefore, following them is not considered following conjecture, but rather following knowledge in general. This is the meaning of what has been narrated from the Prophet where he said: «مَا جَاءَكُمْ عَنِّي يُوَافِقُ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ فَأَنَا قُلْتُهُ، وَمَا جَاءَكُمْ عَنِّي يُخَالِفُ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ فَلَمْ أَقُلْهُ»[1]; “Whatever comes to you from me that conforms to the Book of Allah, I said it. And whatever comes to you from me that contradicts the Book of Allah, I did not say it,” and in another narration, he said: «مَا جَاءَكُمْ عَنِّي مِنْ حَدِيثٍ يُوَافِقُ الْحَقَّ فَأَنَا قُلْتُهُ، وَمَا جَاءَكُمْ عَنِّي مِنْ حَدِيثٍ لَا يُوَافِقُ الْحَقَّ فَلَمْ أَقُلْهُ»[2]; “Whatever hadith comes to you from me that conforms to the truth, I said it. And whatever hadith comes to you from me that does not conform to the truth, I did not say it”; because either he said it with the same wording or with the same meaning if it is a truth that conforms to the Book of Allah. Similarly, it is permissible to act on ahad reports accompanied by pieces of evidence that lead to knowledge, and ahad reports that support each other and agree in meaning despite their different wording, which is called “mutawatir in meaning.” From here, it is understood that it is only forbidden to act on ahad reports that invite to a belief or deed for which there is no clear evidence from the Quran or established attestation from the Sunnah; because acting on them is saying something about Allah without knowledge and following conjecture, while Allah has said: ﴿أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ﴾[3]; “Do you say about Allah what you do not know?!” and said: ﴿قُلْ هَلْ عِنْدَكُمْ مِنْ عِلْمٍ فَتُخْرِجُوهُ لَنَا ۖ إِنْ تَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا تَخْرُصُونَ﴾[4]; “Say: ‘Do you have any knowledge you can produce for us?! You follow nothing but conjecture and do nothing but guess.’” No religious belief or ruling is established except through knowledge, which is acquired from a mutawatir report from Allah’s caliph on Earth, not from a wahid report from him in wording or meaning. In the view of His Eminence Mansoor , the lowest level of a mutawatir report is one narrated at each level by four just men or five men who do not belong to the same family or share a common worldly interest[5]. Today, it is easy to learn about this by referring to the later collections of hadiths that have gathered hadiths on every topic under one heading and have explained the conditions and levels of the narrators. Through this reference, you can know the number of hadiths related to each belief or ruling and examine their chains of transmission, thus determining which one is wahid and which one is mutawatir in wording or meaning.

This is the only way to know the beliefs and rulings of Islam before reaching Allah’s caliph on Earth. However, it is undoubtedly insufficient due to the limited number of available mutawatir reports compared to the matters that people need in their religion and worldly affairs. Therefore, it is necessary to reach Allah’s caliph on Earth, who in our time is Imam Mahdi . However, he has gone into hiding out of fear for his life, as explained by His Eminence Mansoor [6]. Reaching him is only possible by preparing the ground for his advent, and preparing the ground for his advent is the gathering of hearts, tongues, and hands to seek and help him. This is what His Eminence Mansoor invites to, both secretly and openly. Whoever answers his invitation with his heart, tongue, and hands has fulfilled his obligation to prepare the ground for the advent of Imam Mahdi but whoever does not answer his invitation with his heart, tongue, or hands has obstructed the advent of Imam Mahdi to that extent, ﴿لِيَجْزِيَ اللَّهُ كُلَّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ﴾[7]; “so that Allah rewards every soul for what it has earned. Indeed, Allah is swift in reckoning.”