Moreover, the truth of a solitary report can be recognized through various kinds of evidence that point to its reliability; it can also be established by contextual clues that accompany the narration and by which its authenticity becomes apparent. Those proofs and clues may lie in the qualities of the transmitter himself—his knowledge, his religious devotion, and his habitual commitment to honesty—so that it is known with absolute certainty that he would never knowingly lie. Thus the scholars of hadith are certain beyond doubt that Ibn ʿUmar, ʿĀʾishah, Abū Saʿīd, Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and their peers did not deliberately fabricate anything about the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him—much less Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ibn Masʿūd, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, and those of their rank. Indeed, they likewise possess unequivocal knowledge that al-Thawrī, Mālik, Shuʿbah, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, Abū Zurʿah, Abū Dāwūd, and others of their standing never intentionally lied in transmitting hadith.

At other times the evidence consists in features of the very subject-matter being reported—specific either to that particular narration or to its type—by which it is understood that the narrator would not lie about such a matter, like the chamberlain