al-Raṣāfī, along with several others.

As for the ḥadith master Abū Mūsā, he quoted a great many of its reports in his own writings, yet he never ventured to arrange or edit the work.

Ibn ʿAsākir, for his part, composed a book that lists—alphabetically—the Companions mentioned in the Musnad, and he drew attention to how the Musnad itself should be reorganised.

As for Ibn al-Jawzī, he reviewed the Musnad repeatedly, filled his books with material taken from it, and later authored Jāmiʿ al-Masānīd, into which he inserted most of the Musnad’s texts. He arranged and refined them, but he did not encompass everything.

Perhaps Allah will raise up for this monumental corpus someone who will set it in proper order, polish it, remove the repetitions, correct the copyists’ errors, clarify the standing of many of its narrators, point out what is mursal, weaken the reports that merit such judgement, arrange the Companions alphabetically—and likewise their followers—mark the head of each ḥadith with the sigla of the Six Books, and, if he were also to arrange it by topical chapters, that would be most admirable. Were it not that I am unable to undertake this myself because of failing eyesight, lack of resolve, and the nearness of my departure, I would have done so. (1)

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad the jurist and al-Musallam ibn Muḥammad the scribe informed us in writing; they said: Ḥanbal ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥuṣayn informed us; Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Mudhahhib informed us; Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Qaṭīʿī narrated to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad related to me; my father related to me; Ibn Numayr narrated to us; Sufyān narrated to us from Sumayy.