(1) He is Yahya ibn Abi Kathir al-Taʾi, their freedman, Abu Nasr, al-Yamami. Ibn Hajar writes: “Reliable and precise, though he practices tadlis and transmits mursal reports.” He belongs to the fifth generation, and the compilers of the six canonical collections and others narrate from him. He died in 132 AH. See: Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:356, no. 158. (2) In MS A the chain reads: “from Yahya ibn Abi Ubaydah ibn ʿAbd Allah,” which is a copyist’s error. (3) I.e. Ibn Masʿud. The printed edition adds this clarification. Abu ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿud is well known by his kunyah; he was a trustworthy Kufan transmitter of the third generation who died after 80 AH. See: Taqrib al-Tahdhib 2:448, no. 86. (4) ʿAbd al-Razzaq, al-Musannaf 1:364, hadith no. 1417. Al-Bayhaqi also records it in al-Sunan al-Kubra and remarks: “Bishr ibn Rafiʿ is its sole transmitter, and he is not strong.” See al-Sunan al-Kubra 2:243. (5) Same reference as the previous note. (6) He is Nuʿman ibn Thabit al-Tamimi, their freedman, al-Kufi—better known as Imam Abu Hanifah, the first of the four canonical jurists. A trustworthy, learned, ascetic, and devout scholar, he declined Caliph al-Mansur’s offer of a judgeship out of scrupulousness. He transmitted relatively few hadiths. Born in 80 AH; died in 150 AH. See: Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah 10:107–108; al-Zirikli, al-Aʿlam 8:36. (7) He is Imam Muhammad ibn Idris ibn al-ʿAbbas ibn ʿUthman ibn Shafiʿ al-Muttalibi (al-Shafiʿi), eponym of the Shafiʿi school and one of the four great imams. He died in 204 AH at the age of fifty-four. (8) See: Masaʾil al-Imam Ahmad, transmitted by Abu Dawud, p. 40, “Bab al-Sadl”; and Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni with al-Sharh al-Kabir, 1:623. (9) The word anna (“that”) is missing from MS Ṭ. (10) The particle innama (“only”) is omitted in MS B.