In order to attain this lofty objective, al-Bukhari deliberately scattered a single ḥadith and repeated it in several different places, employing it in each context as evidence for the point that best suited that chapter.

One of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim’s distinctive traits is that when Muslim cites a ḥadith through several of his teachers, he usually specifies whose exact wording he is reproducing. He will say, for example, “So-and-so and so-and-so narrated to us, and the wording is that of So-and-so,” or, “So-and-so—So-and-so narrated to us.”
Examples include his statement in the chapter “The five prayers, Friday to Friday, and Ramadan to Ramadan are expiations for what lies between them so long as major sins are avoided”: “Yahyā ibn Ayyūb, Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, and ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr all narrated to us from Ismāʿīl. Ibn Ayyūb said: Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us.”
Likewise, in the chapter on the desirability of lengthening the blaze and whiteness (ghurra and taḥjīl) in wuḍūʾ, he says: “Suwayd ibn Saʿīd and Ibn Abī ʿUmar both narrated to us from Marwān al-Fazārī. Ibn Abī ʿUmar said: Marwān narrated to us.”
In the very next ḥadith he states: “Abū Kurayb and Wāṣil ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā narrated to us—and the wording is that of Wāṣil; they both said: Ibn Fuḍayl narrated to us.”
And in the chapter “Performing istinjāʾ with water after relieving oneself” he writes: “Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb and Abū Kurayb narrated to me—and the wording is that of Zuhayr; they said: Ismāʿīl, meaning Ibn ʿUlayyah, narrated to us.”

As for Imām al-Bukhari, al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī notes in Fatḥ al-Bārī—while commenting on the ḥadith of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh about the five privileges granted to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the second ḥadith in the Book of Dry Ablution (Tayammum) of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari—that when al-Bukhari reports a ḥadith from more than one narrator, the wording belongs to the last of them. He writes: “It has become clear through inductive examination of al-Bukhari’s practice that whenever he cites a ḥadith from more than one source, the wording is that of the final narrator. Allah knows best.”

Another unique aspect of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is that Muslim opened it with an introduction containing several foundational discussions of ḥadith science, a summary of which has already been presented. Imām al-Bukhari, by contrast, placed no preface before his Ṣaḥīḥ; rather, he began straightaway with the chapter on the commencement of revelation to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is also characterized by its frequent use of the editorial device known as taḥwīl—turning the isnād over to a different narrator within the same chain—because he gathers all the various routes of a ḥadith on a given topic in a single place. Instances of such switching are comparatively rare in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari.

Sahih Muslim is likewise distinguished by the scarcity of suspended (muʿallaq) reports it contains, for the total number of such cases amounts to