and hadith scholars are the most eminent of these authorities in standing (1), the most truthful, the highest in rank, and the most devout.
They are among the most truthful and trustworthy of people, and among the most learned and experienced in their statements concerning narrator criticism and accreditation. They include Mālik, Shu'ba, Sufyān, Yahyā ibn Sa'īd, Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Ibn al-Mubārak, Wakī', al-Shāfi'ī, Ahmad, Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, Abū Ubayd, Ibn Ma'īn, Ibn al-Madīnī, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, Abū Zur'a, Abū Hātim, al-Nasā'ī, al-Ijlī, Abū Ahmad ibn Adī, Abū Hātim (2) al-Bustī, al-Dāraqutnī, and countless others like them who possessed knowledge of narrators and narrator criticism and accreditation. Some were more knowledgeable in this field than others, and some were fairer than others in weighing their words, just as people vary in all other disciplines.
Many books, both large and small, have been compiled for people concerning the transmitters of reports. These include Ibn Sa'd's al-Tabaqāt, al-Bukhārī's two Tārīkhs, the works transmitting material from Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahyā ibn Ma'īn, and others, and, before these, material transmitted from Yahyā ibn Sa'īd al-Qattān and others; as well as the works of Ya'qūb ibn Sufyān, Ibn Abī Khaythama, and Ibn Abī Hātim, the work of Ibn Adī, the works (3) of Abū Hāzim, and similar writings.
Hadith collections were sometimes arranged as musnads, recording what each Companion (4) transmitted with a chain from the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—such as the Musnads of Ahmad, Ishāq, and Abū Dāwūd