  Tradition for Saadya demarcates a unique category of knowing, in that, unlike the 3 other epistemological processes he addresses (viz. sensory, inferential and reason-based knowing), knowing by tradition comes to a person (or a group) all at once (as opposed to being a process unfolding in time, as is the case for the other 3 modes of knowing).  Furthermore, knowledge received from tradition is not only immediately received, but is additionally immediately certain to its recipient(s). “tradition” translates Saadya's Arabic “al-kabar” (Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew: haggadah), which literally has the sense of “a report.” The conceptual heart of tradition can hence be understood as a kind of reliable report — or heard testimony transmitted from person to person. It might further be noted that tradition (al-kabar) has its root in the Arabic verb kabara, “to experience,” with the additional sense of “to know,” and even “to know thoroughly.” As such, Saadya's Arabic notion of tradition-as-report carries with it already a suggestion of reliable knowledge.