have heard what others have not heard and know aspects of the Prophet’s life, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that others do not know. Mass transmission does not require a fixed number of transmitters. Some scholars, however, have claimed that there is a particular number that yields certain knowledge, regardless of what is reported or who reports it. They denied that four were sufficient and withheld judgment concerning numbers greater than four. This is mistaken: certainty sometimes arises from the number of transmitters, sometimes from their qualities, sometimes from corroborating circumstances accompanying their reports, and sometimes from other factors.

Furthermore, a report narrated by one or two Companions yields certain knowledge, according to the great majority of scholars, if the Muslim community has accepted it and affirmed its truth. Some call this mustafīd (widely transmitted). Certainty here arises from the scholars’ consensus on its authenticity, for consensus cannot be upon error.

For this reason, most of the hadith texts in the two Sahīh collections are known to be authentic among the scholars of the various schools: the Hanafīs, Mālikīs, Shāfiʿīs, Hanbalīs, and Ashʿarīs. Only a group of speculative theologians disagreed on this matter, as has been explained at length elsewhere.