What if the narrator suffered from some mental or psychological problems, given the condition that narrators of mutawatir hadith memorize it or read it from a written source?
A mutawatir is one narrated by a large group of people whom it is inconceivable would conspire to lie, from a similar large group, and the basis of their report is sensory perception. As for thew narrator of the hadith, the muhaddithun (hadith scholars) stipulated for the acceptance of his narration that he be a Muslim, sane, precise, proficient in his memorization or writing, adorned with piety, and free from anything that violates murua'a (chivalry/integrity). After ensuring the narrator's soundness, his narrations are compared with those of trustworthy narrators to ensure they are free from shudhudh (oddness) and illa (hidden defect). The conditions for a (authentic) hadith are five: justice of all its narrators, their perfect precision, continuous chain of narration (), freedom from shudhudh (oddness), and freedom from illa khafiyyah (hidden defect). Accordingly, the hadith of a narrator suffering from any mental imbalance that affects his precision is not accepted, nor is one relied upon who has psychological problems that affect his eligibility to narrate hadith.
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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