fourteen instances, as has already been noted, whereas Imām al-Bukhārī employed this device far more often in his own Ṣaḥīḥ.

Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is further set apart by the fact that Imām Muslim—may Allah have mercy on him—confined it to reports whose chains go back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, without including the statements of the Companions or others. Al-Bukhārī, on the other hand, did quote such statements, even though they are not part of his book’s formal criteria; he inserted them solely for clarification and explanation, for his aim was to combine in his work both transmission (riwāya) and critical understanding (dirāya).