—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—provides the strongest self-evident certainty that they neither lied in what they transmitted from him nor concealed what he commanded them to convey. This needs-based religious disposition peculiar to them differs from the general disposition shared by all human beings.

(Fourth:

Scholars with specialist knowledge are familiar with the statements of Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—obliging them to convey his teachings, with their reverence for the commands of Allah and His Messenger, and with the piety of individuals among them: the caliphs, Ibn Masʿūd, Ubayy, Muʿādh, Abū al-Dardā’, and others down to Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Ibn ʿAmr. They therefore know with absolute certainty, untouched by doubt, that these men would never conceal the foundations of the religion that must be conveyed to the public, just as they know that they would never lie about Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Hadith scholars likewise know enough about the character of those renowned for this knowledge—such as al-Zuhrī, Qatāda, Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr, Mālik, al-Thawrī, Shuʿba, Hammād ibn Zayd, Hammād ibn Salama, and others—to know that they would neither lie nor withhold the transmission of these momentous matters. Their very character would have precluded their concealing such matters, had they existed. They have grounds for this knowledge that would take a long time to explain, but establishing it is not the purpose here. The purpose is simply to draw attention to the doubt that has arisen among certain followers of their own desires.