al-Bukhari and Muslim is of the kind that allows one to assert categorically that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) actually said it, because the bulk of their contents fall into this category. In addition, the scholars have received these narrations with acceptance and affirmation, and the Ummah does not agree upon an error. Had a hadith been false in reality while the community believed and accepted it, they would have reached unanimity in affirming what is, in fact, a lie. Such a consensus upon error is impossible. Admittedly, before any consensus (ijmaʿ) is established, we allow for the possibility that a report contains an error or fabrication; this is like allowing—before learning of a consensus—that knowledge derived from an apparent text or a probable analogy might, in truth, be contrary to what we have concluded. Once they agree upon a ruling, however, we are certain that the ruling holds true both inwardly and outwardly.

Explanation

This is clear. At times a hadith crosses your path and you understand from it a particular meaning, yet you realise that it could conceivably bear another, inner meaning that contradicts the outward sense you have perceived. When consensus is then formed on the ruling indicated by the hadith’s apparent meaning, we know that the hidden interpretation we had imagined is no longer possible, because the Ummah does not unite upon error.

For example, the narrators’ disagreement over the price paid for Jabir’s camel does not render the report disturbed (muḍṭarib), for this variation does not touch the substance of the hadith; it pertains only