al-Tayālisī, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba, Muhammad ibn Abī Umar al-Adanī, Ahmad ibn Manī', Abū Ya'lā al-Mawsilī, Abū Bakr al-Bazzār al-Basrī, and others.

At other times, they were arranged by topical chapters. Some compilers set out to collect authentic reports (1), such as al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Ibn Khuzayma, Abū Hātim, and others. Likewise, some compiled parallel-chain collections based on the two Sahihs, such as al-Ismā'īlī, al-Barqānī, Abū Nu'aym, and others. Some compiled Sunan collections of hadith, such as Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasā'ī, Ibn Mājah, and others. Others compiled comprehensive collections containing reports on virtues and other subjects, such as al-Tirmidhī and others.

This is a great science—one of the greatest sciences of Islam. There is no doubt that the Rāfida possess less knowledge of this field, and no group among the followers of whims and innovations is more ignorant of it than they are. All the other followers of whims—such as the Mu'tazilites and the Kharijites—fall short (2) in their knowledge of it; nevertheless, the Mu'tazilites are far more knowledgeable than the Kharijites, the Kharijites are far more knowledgeable than the Rāfida, and the Kharijites (3) are more truthful, more religiously observant, and more scrupulous than the Rāfida. Indeed, we know of no deliberate lying on the part of the Kharijites; rather, they are [among] (4) the most truthful of people.

The Mu'tazilites, like all other sects, include some who lie and others who tell the truth. Yet they do not devote the same care to hadith and knowledge of it (5) as do the people of hadith and the Sunnah, for the latter make their religious practice (6) rest upon it (7) and therefore need to know what is true.