(1) Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Alqama ibn Waqas al-Laythi. Ibn Hajar rates him in al-Taqrib as “trustworthy, though he does make mistakes.” All four Sunan compilers transmit from him; al-Bukhari cites him only in conjunction with another narrator, and Muslim uses him in corroborative chains. He died in 145 AH/762-63 CE. See: Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 9:375-77, no. 617; Taqrib al-Tahdhib 2:196, no. 583. (2) Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf al-Zuhri, a first-generation Successor. Born in 22 AH/643 CE, he was one of Medina’s jurists and served as its judge under Muawiya. A prolific and reliable transmitter from the Companions, he died in Medina in 94 AH/713 CE. See: al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya 9:116; Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra 5:155. (3) Copy D reads: “and split up.” (4) Sulayman ibn al-Ashath ibn Shaddad ibn Amr ibn Umar—also said ‘Imran—born 202 AH/817 CE. A leading hadith master renowned for his scholarship, devotion, and defence of the sunnah. His Sunan ranks among the Six Books accepted as generally sound. He died in 298 AH/910-11 CE. See: Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 4:169–73, no. 298. (5) Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Majah al-Rabʿi by wala, from Qazwin, Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Hafiz. Born 207 AH/822-23 CE, he was a meticulous hadith scholar whose authority is widely recognised. Author of the Sunan known as Sunan Ibn Majah, and also works on tafsir and history. He died in 275 AH/888-89 CE. See: al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya 11:52; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 9:530-32, no. 870. (6) This hadith is missing from copy B. (7) See: Sunan Abi Dawud, Book of Sunnah, no. 4596 (5/4); Sunan Ibn Majah, chapter “The splitting of the nations,” no. 3991 (2/1321); Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Book of Faith, “What has been reported concerning the splitting of this community,” no. 2640 (5/25), where he states: “The hadith of Abu Hurayra is hasan sahih.”