and likewise Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, ʿIkrimah—the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās—ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Masrūq ibn al-Ajdaʿ, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, Abū l-ʿĀliyah, al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, Qatādah, al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim, and many others among the Followers, their disciples, and those who came after them. When their remarks on a given verse are quoted, variety in wording occurs within their expressions; someone lacking learning may imagine this to be a real disagreement and record them as divergent views, whereas it is not so. One scholar may describe the point by mentioning its necessary implication or something analogous to it, while another may cite the matter itself; yet in many instances they all intend one and the same meaning. Let the discerning reader take note of this, and Allah is the Guide.

Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj and others said: “The statements of the Followers on subsidiary legal questions are not…”