because at that point (1) he (2) stands in the place of the judge; whereas if it is the second case, the matter is the subject of dispute.
It has become clear (3) likewise (4) that no plurality (5) is required, for the very act of transmission imposes no numerical condition, and whatever branches (6) from it follows the same rule. Allah knows best (7).
Disparagement and commendation should be accepted only from a just, alert critic; the disparagement (8) voiced by one who is excessive—impugning (9) a narrator on grounds that do not warrant rejecting the transmitter’s hadith (10)—is not accepted, just as the commendation (11) of someone who relies solely on outward appearances and issues blanket approvals is not accepted.
Al-Dhahabi said (12)—and he (13) is among those who have exhaustively surveyed the narrators—“Never have two scholars of this discipline agreed on declaring a weak narrator trustworthy, nor (14) on (15) declaring a trustworthy narrator weak.” (16) End of quote.
(1) The word hina-idhin (at that time) is absent in D.
(2) The verb yakunu (is/occurs) is absent in K.
(3) B, C, D, Y, and L read wa-yatabayyan (and it becomes clear).
(4) K has the phrase aydan annahu (also that he), with the words transposed.
(5) K adds the word fihi (in it).
(6) D reads ma yufarriʿ (what is derived); in A the word is written without pointing.
(7) In the margin of D, in the author’s own hand, there is the addition: thumma balagha kadhalik (then it likewise reached [him]).
(8) The word jarh (criticism) is absent in A.
(9) H reads fa-juriḥa (with ḍamma on the jīm and kasra on the rāʾ, passive), whereas E, L, and M read fa-jarraḥa (with fatḥa and a doubled rāʾ, active); the adopted reading is that found in B, C, D, and W.
(10) A copy annotated in the margin of Y has: raddan li-ḥadīth (as a refutation of a hadith).
(11) B, E, W, K, and M read lā tuqbalu (is not accepted); in A and L the letters are unpointed.
(12) In B the word qāla (he said) appears without an introductory wāw.
(13) In M the word huwa (he) appears without an introductory wāw.
(14) The negative particle lā is missing in M.
(15) The preposition ʿalā (on/upon) is absent in D and L.
(16) Al-Dhahabi, Al-Mawqiẓa fi ʿIlm Muṣṭalaḥ al-Ḥadīth (The Awakener on Hadith Methodology), p. 84.