- Next are the reports that meet al-Bukhari’s criteria alone;
- then those that meet Muslim’s criteria alone;
- then the reports related by other leading imams who were committed to authenticity and declared those reports sound.
Thus, the categories number seven in all.
The meaning of “the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim”
What is meant by “the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim” is that the transmitters possess the same qualities required by al-Bukhari and Muslim—accurate retention, upright character, and freedom from irregularity, objectionability, or heedlessness. Some scholars, however, have said that the phrase refers to the very narrators whom al-Bukhari and Muslim actually used in their compilations. The discussion of this point is extensive; we have addressed it in the introduction to our commentary on Safar al-Saʿādah.
Al-Bukhari and Muslim did not encompass all authentic reports
Authentic hadiths are not confined to the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and they did not