because al-Bukhārī breaks the ḥadīths up and disperses them across numerous chapters, using each placement as evidence for the legal issue he headlines. He wanted his book to serve both transmission and comprehension. The total number of ḥadīths in al-Luʾluʾ wal-Marjān comes to (1906) narrations.

When scholars cite a report that appears in both Ṣaḥīḥ collections, they say, “Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim,” or “Recorded by the Two Shaykhs,” or “Agreed upon” (muttafaqun ʿalayh). In technical usage, the phrase “agreed upon” signifies agreement between al-Bukhārī and Muslim—except in the works of Majd Ibn Taymiyyah, the grandfather of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and author of Muntaqā al-Akhbār, which al-Shawkānī annotated in Nayl al-Awṭār. For Majd Ibn Taymiyyah, “agreed upon” includes, alongside al-Bukhārī and Muslim, Imam Aḥmad’s Musnad; thus, when he writes “agreed upon,” he intends those three.