Al-Bukhārī (may Allah have mercy on him) did not rule it to be connected merely because the connected version contains an addition, but rather he ruled for its being connected due to other considerations that, in his view, tipped the balance in favor of the connected report. Among these is that Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq, his son Isrāʾīl, and ʿĪsā all narrated it from Abū Isḥāq as connected, and there is no doubt that a man's family are more closely acquainted with him than others. They were also joined in this by Abū ʿAwāna, Sharīk al-Nakhaʿī, and Zuhayr ibn Umayya, making a total of ten of Abū Isḥāq's students, despite the differences in their sessions of taking from him and their hearing it from his own utterance. As for the narration of those who reported it as interrupted—namely Shuʿba and Sufyān—they both took it from Abū Isḥāq in a single session… And it is not hidden that what is taken from the narrator's own utterance in multiple sessions outweighs what is taken from him by way of presentation in a single place. This is so even if we say that Sufyān's and Shuʿba's memory stands in contrast to the number of the others, although al-Shāfiʿī holds that the greater number is more deserving of reliable memory than the single individual. Thus it becomes clear that al-Bukhārī's preference for the connected version of this ḥadīth over its interrupted one was not merely because the one who connected it had an addition not found with the one who interrupted it, but rather due to the indications of preference that became apparent.

This is further reinforced by his preferring the interrupted version in other places. An example of this is what al-Thawrī narrated from Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ḥazm, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Umm Salama, who said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to her: "If you wish, I will complete seven circuits for you." And Mālik narrated it from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr ibn al-Ḥārith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Umm Salama… Al-Bukhārī said in his *Tārīkh*: "The correct view is the statement of Mālik, despite its being interrupted." So here he deemed the interrupted version correct.