Causes of difference in the traditions and categories of narrators

Someone [1] asked Amīr al-mu’minīn about concocted traditions and contradictory sayings of the Prophet current among the people, whereupon he said:

Certainly what is current among the people is both right and wrong, true and false, repealing and repealed, general and particular, definite and indefinite, exact and surmised. Even during the Prophet’s days false…

Those who relate traditions are of four categories, [2] no more.

[First : The hypocrites :] The hypocrite is a person who makes a show of faith and adopts the appearance of a Muslim; he does not hesitate in sinning nor does he keep aloof from vice; he wilfully attributes false things…

Allāh too had warned you well about the hypocrites and described them fully to you. They have continued after the Holy Prophet. They gained positions with the leaders of misguidance and callers towards Hell through…

[Second: Those who are mistaken :] Then there is the individual who heard (a saying) from the Holy Prophet but did not memorise it as it was, but surmised it. He does not lie wilfully. Now, he carries the saying with him…

[Third: Those who are ignorant :] The third man is he who heard the Prophet ordering to do a thing and later the Prophet refrained the people from doing it, but this man did not know it, or he heard the Prophet…

[Fourth: Those who memorise truthfully :] The last, namely the fourth man, is he who does not speak a lie against Allāh or against His Prophet. He hates falsehood out of fear for Allāh and respect for the Messenger of…

The sayings of the Prophet used to be of two types. One was particular and the other common. Sometimes a man would hear him but he would not know what Allāh, the Glorified, meant by it or what the Messenger of Allāh…

Among the companions of the Messenger of Allāh all were not in the habit of putting him questions and ask him the meanings, indeed they always wished that some Bedouin or stranger might come and ask him (peace be upon…

These are the reasons and grounds of differences among the people in their traditions.