this question rests upon a “preliminary point”: one must understand what it means when someone says of words conveyed to him from another person, “These are that person’s words.”

When a hadith narrator relates from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—his saying:

“Actions are judged only by intentions, and each person will have only what he intended,”

or his saying:

“The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear, and between them are doubtful matters of which many people have no knowledge,”

or his saying:

“Whoever performs an act that does not conform to our command will have it rejected,”

or other such sayings, it is well known that these are the words of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He spoke them, both their wording and their meaning: he communicated their meaning, arranged their letters, and uttered them in his own voice. The person conveying them from him then conveyed his words, as the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“May Allah grant radiance to a person who hears a hadith from us and conveys it just as he heard it. For a bearer of knowledge may lack understanding, and a bearer of knowledge may convey it to someone with greater understanding than himself.”

He thus prayed for radiance for anyone who heard a hadith from him and conveyed it just as he heard it. He thereby made clear that the hadith heard from him is the very hadith conveyed from him, although it is known that the transmitter conveys it through his own actions and voice, and that the voice heard from the transmitter is his own, not the voice of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Although the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—spoke that hadith in his own distinctive voice, what is conveyed from him is the hadith heard from him, whereas the voice that is heard is not his voice.

Thus, if someone asks:

“Is this hadith which the narrator has read out, and which subsists in him