«وَلَوْ تَعَدَّدَتِ الطُّرُقُ إِلَيْهِ»
Even if many chains later lead back to that pivotal transmitter.
Suppose only one student received a report from a teacher. Numerous later students transmitted from that student, and several books eventually recorded the report. The multiplication of channels happened after the isolated teacher–student link. Those later channels are not independent alternatives to that link.
Invalid inference: “Five written isnads exist, so every level must be widely transmitted.”
Proper inquiry: locate their earliest common connection. If all five depend on the same solitary link, that singularity persists.
This analytical distinction also matters for corroboration: genuinely independent paths should not be confused with branches of a single underlying path.