334 – He said, “When a single Companion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reports a ruling from him and no other Companion contests it, we infer two things: first, that he must have related it in their company; and second, that their failure to rebut him with a conflicting report can only mean they knew the matter to be exactly as he described. Thus his report counts as the report of them all.

335 – I said to him, “I have scarcely ever seen you shift to a new position without supporting it with evidence even weaker than the view you abandoned!”

336 – He said, “Explain what you mean.”

337 – I replied, “Is it not possible that a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ might, while in Medina, relate to one person—or to a small group—something he remembers from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; or that he might travel to another land and narrate it there to one or a few people; or that he might report it during a journey, or on his death-bed, to one or more individuals?”

338 – He said, “Let us say I claim that none of them would narrate a hadith unless it was already well known among the Companions.”

339 – I responded, “Yet you will find a number of Successors transmitting a hadith while naming only one source. Had it truly been famous among them, they would have heard it from others as well, or at least heard others quote it from that same transmitter.

340 – Moreover, we at times see them disagreeing over a matter for which a hadith from the Prophet ﷺ exists: some adopt an opinion that accords with the hadith, while others put forward an opinion that contradicts it.

340 – He asked, “How do you account for that?”

341 – I said, “Had the one who voiced an opinion contrary to the hadith actually heard the hadith from the Prophet ﷺ, he would—God willing—never have dared to oppose it.

342 – And I further said to him, “Ibn ʿAbbās has transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ the ruling that an oath together with a single witness …"