The sphere of conjecture. Conjecture does not instill certainty or tranquility in the soul; rather, it instills doubt. This is in contrast to transmitted reports (tawatur), which instill certainty in the soul regarding the authenticity of what is transmitted. Therefore, it yields knowledge, not doubt. Ibn Tumart is counted among those who hold this view. He stated in various places in his writings that reports of individuals (akhbar al-ahad) are doubtful and do not yield certainty.

Since Al-Mahdi had definitively stated that doubt cannot be a source for legal rulings, as explained previously, he invalidated in this context the establishment of legal rulings based on individual reports. He asserted that it is impossible for a ruling to be established by a single report. He derived this conclusion from the fact that individual reports do not yield certainty because they are doubtful, and doubt yields neither knowledge nor suffices from the truth in any way. Therefore, it is impossible for rulings to be established by them.

However, if a single report, due to its doubtful nature, cannot form the basis of a ruling that instills certainty in the soul as the definitive ruling, then it is possible, and indeed obligatory, to act upon the commands and prohibitions contained within it. It does not necessitate the ruling itself, but it necessitates action. The explanation for this is that if we receive a report from a single individual, that report does not necessitate a certain ruling for us, nor does it necessitate the ruling it contains. Thus, the ruling is not established upon it as obligatory, as it is established upon what is transmitted by tawatur. However, the lack of certainty derived from a single report does not preclude acting upon that ruling; rather, acting upon it is obligatory.

Al-Mahdi strived to provide evidence for the obligation to act upon single reports from the Book, the Sunnah, and the consensus.

See, for example: Al-Bazdawi and Ala al-Din al-Bukhari - Usul and its explanation Kashf al-Asrar; Al-Ghazali - Al-Mustasfa; Ibn Abd al-Shakur and Abd al-Ali al-Ansari - Muslim al-Thubut and its explanation Fawatikh al-Rahmut.

See: Ibn Tumart - A'azz ma Yutlab.

See: Ibn Tumart - A'azz ma Yutlab.