and Abd al-Rahmān ibn al-Qāsim, Ubayd Allah ibn Umar (1), al-Zuhrī, Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Ansārī, Abū al-Zinād, and such figures as Mālik, al-Awzā‘ī, al-Layth ibn Sa‘d, Abū Hanīfa, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm, and others (2).
However, the reliably transmitted hadiths and legal opinions of some of these men may be more numerous than those reliably transmitted from others. A man may therefore be renowned for the breadth of his knowledge, the strength of his proof, or something similar.
Ahl al-Sunnah do not, however, maintain that Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd, Hishām ibn Urwa, and Abū al-Zinād are more deserving of being followed than Ja‘far ibn Muhammad. Nor do they maintain that al-Zuhrī, Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr, Hammād ibn Abī Sulaymān (3), and Mansūr ibn al-Mu‘tamir are more deserving of being followed than his father (4), Abū Ja‘far al-Bāqir. Nor do they maintain that al-Qāsim ibn Muhammad, Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, and Sālim ibn Abd Allah are more deserving of being followed than Alī ibn al-Husayn.
Rather, every [one of] (5) these men is reliable in what he transmits and is to be believed concerning it. Whatever he explains of how the Book and the Sunnah point to any particular matter forms part of the knowledge from which benefit is derived. He is therefore to be believed in his narration and chain of transmission, and his exposition and guidance are to be accepted (6). And if he issues a legal opinion