Usul Hadith #5: Muttasil

A narration where its sanad has no person omitted or missing up to its stated end such as the Prophet ﷺ.

Allamah Nawawi states in Taqrib1 states:

[Muttasil] is also called Mawsul. It is a sanad which is connected2 [without the omission of a person in between] be it marfu3 or mawquf4 .

The term muttasil will be qualified with a name, if the sanad is only connected up to a specific narrator such as if the sanad terminates upon Zuhri, it will be said Muttasil ila Zuhri rather than simply saying Muttasil. Muttasil when said simply generally indicates that it is marfu'.

Muttasil is not compatible with munqati'5 and mu'dhal6 .

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Further reading

Fath al-Mugith li Sakhawi pp.185-6 v.1

Tadrib al-Rawi li Suyuti ma'a Taqrib al-Nawawi p. 94 v. 1

• 1p. 32
• 2Allm. Ibn Salah says by each narrator having heard it from the person before them. Allm. Jama' says it is sufficient if they only got ijazah (permission). cf Tadrib p. 94 v.1
• 3It is connected all the way to the Prophet ﷺ
• 4It is connected up to the sahabi at most and not beyond
• 5A narrator is missing from the later generation.
• 6When two or more narrators are missing consecutively.