«إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ»
Actions are judged in relation to intentions.
This well-known authentic report has an early line through ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab, then ʿAlqamah ibn Waqqas, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Taymi, and Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Ansari. Numerous transmitters disseminated it in later generations.
Subsequent fame does not retroactively turn an early solitary line into multiple independent routes. This authentic report accordingly demonstrates why two transmitters at every stage cannot be made an absolute condition of sahih status.