What is transmitted from the leading imams of hadith among the early scholars—such as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Yaḥyā ibn al-Qaṭṭān, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Yaḥyā ibn Muʿīn, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, al-Bukhārī, Abū Zurʿah, Abū Ḥātim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, al-Dāraquṭnī, and others—is the consideration of tarjīḥ (preponderance) with regard to additions and other matters. It is not known from any of them that they held an unqualified acceptance of additions. More astonishing than that is the unqualified statement of many Shāfiʿīs that the addition of a trustworthy narrator is accepted, even though the explicit text of al-Shāfiʿī indicates otherwise.

Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd said: Whoever reports from the people of hadith, or most of them, that when a musnad (connected) narration and a mursal (disconnected) narration conflict, or a rafiʿ (elevating) narration and a wāqif (stopping) narration conflict, or a deficient and an additional narration conflict, the ruling is for the additional one—he has not been correct in this unqualified statement, for that is not a consistent rule. By reviewing their specific rulings, you will recognize the correctness of what we say. The ḥāfiẓ al-ʿAlāʾī affirmed this in his "Jāmiʿ al-Taḥṣīl," saying: The statements of the early imams in this field—such as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, and their likes—are that no universal ruling is given in this matter; rather, their practice in it revolves around tarjīḥ according to what is stronger in the view of each of them regarding a particular hadith.

As for al-Bukhārī's statement, "The addition of a trustworthy narrator is accepted," he only said it when he was asked about the hadith "There is no marriage except with a guardian," which Shuʿbah and Sufyān—both mountains in memorization—had transmitted as mursal, while Isrāʾīl ibn Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī and others transmitted it as musnad. Al-Bukhārī then said, "The addition of a trustworthy narrator is accepted," and ruled in favor of those who connected it.