; al-Ghatrifi; Abu Tahir, the grandson of the Imam Ibn Khuzaimah; and Abu Bakr al-Qati‘i, the transmitter of the Musnad of Ahmad. Any narrator of this sort whose reports are cited as evidence in the Sahih is accepted only on the basis of what he narrated before his confusion. Allah knows best.

Type Sixty-Three
The Ranks (ṭabaqāt) of Scholars and Narrators

This is an important discipline. The Ṭabaqāt of Ibn Sa‘d is a monumental work rich in benefits. Ibn Sa‘d himself is trustworthy, yet within that book he frequently transmits from weak narrators, among them his own teacher Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al-Waqidi, whom he does not identify as such. A ṭabaqah is a group whose members resemble one another. Two individuals may belong to the same ṭabaqah from one angle yet to two different ṭabaqāt from another. Thus Anas and his peers among the younger Companions are classed together with the Ten Promised Paradise in the single ṭabaqah of the Companions. On this basis all the Companions form one ṭabaqah, the Successors a second, their Successors a third, and so on. If precedence is taken into consideration, however, the Companions divide into a dozen or so ṭabaqāt, as explained earlier. Anyone who studies this field must know the dates of birth and death, as well as from whom each narrator received and who narrated from him. Allah knows best.