he cites Sahih al-Bukhari and then adds: “Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj followed the same course. He began gathering the material for his book, authoring it, and arranging it in two parts, setting out its structure.

His plan was to place in the first part the hadiths transmitted by narrators noted for precision, and in the second part the hadiths of upright and truthful narrators who had not yet reached the rank of the thoroughly meticulous. Death, however, intervened before this wish could be realized, and he died before completing his work.

Yet, despite its gaps, the book became well-known and widely circulated.

Al-Hakim said: “Muslim intended to produce the Sahih in three divisions corresponding to three tiers of transmitters. He stated this at the very beginning of his preface, but he was only able to finish the first tier before he died.”

Al-Hakim then put forward a claim that is nothing more than an assertion, saying: “He does not cite any hadith unless it is narrated by a well-known Companion from whom at least two reliable transmitters—if not more—report; those two are, in turn, reported from by at least two trustworthy narrators, and so on for each subsequent level.”

Abu ʿAli al-Jayyani replied: “What is meant is that this Companion—or this Successor—had two men transmit from him, and that alone removes him from the category of the unknown.”

Qadi ʿIyad said: “What al-Hakim has deduced about Muslim—that …”