And this is found in “the well-known compilations of Islam,” such as the two Sahīh collections of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and the Sunan collections, including the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasā’ī, the Jāmi‘ of al-Tirmidhī, and the Muwatta’ of Imam Mālik, as well as the well-known collections arranged by narrator, such as the Musnad of Imam Ahmad and others.
The books of “Quranic exegesis,” “the Prophet’s military campaigns,” and all other “hadith collections,” in their entirety and in their individual parts, contain reports, some of which provide evidence for others. Allah has raised up knowledgeable scholars who have devoted themselves to this field, through whose efforts He has preserved the religion for its followers.
Groups of scholars have compiled the hadiths and reports transmitted concerning “the beliefs of the people of the Sunnah,” including Hammād ibn Salama, Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Abd Allāh ibn Abd al-Rahmān al-Dārimī, Uthmān ibn Sa‘īd al-Dārimī, and others of their generation. Similarly, al-Bukhārī, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasā’ī, Ibn Mājah, and others have devoted chapters to these subjects in their books. The same is true of the works of Abū Bakr al-Athram, Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad, Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, Abū al-Qāsim al-Tabarānī, Abū al-Shaykh al-Asbahānī, Abū Bakr al-Ājurrī, Abū al-Hasan al-Dāraqutnī, Abū Abd Allāh ibn Mandah, Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālakā’ī, Abū Abd Allāh Ibn Batta, Abū Amr al-Talamankī, Abū Nu‘aym al-Asbahānī, Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, and Abū Dharr al-Harawī—although some of these works contain weak hadiths that those with expertise can recognize.
Many people may also narrate, concerning the divine attributes and all other matters of belief