The acceptance of reports

Al-Masudi sets out the views of people on the acceptance of reports. One group held that the reports which remove excuse and make knowledge and action obligatory are the widely transmitted reports (istifada), that is, what the multitude transmits from the multitude; and that any other is not obligatory to accept. The majority of the jurists of the cities held that the report of tawatur is to be accepted, and they made the acting upon a single-transmitter report (khabar al-wahid) obligatory, regarding it as requiring action but not certain knowledge, on the basis of attributes they set out. ²

Al-Masudi makes clear that the reports of the nasnas, the phoenix, and the creation of the horse fall within the permissible and possible, neither obligatory nor impossible. In his view they belong with the Israelite narratives and the wonders of the seas. ²