السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته أحسن الله إليكم When classifying ahadith as gharib, aziz, or mashhur, do we go by the lowest number in the chain? For example: 1 -> 2 -> 3. Would this example classify as gharib because it’s the lowest number? جزاكم الله خيرا

Ustadh AbdulAziz al-Haqqan

Yes. The class goes by the fewest narrators at any level of the chain, since, as Ibn Hajar said, the fewer decides over the more. So a chain of 1, then 2, then 3 is gharib.