Rank 7: independently authentic without matching either special condition — a sound report outside both Sahih collections that is not established as meeting the joint condition or the separate condition of either compiler, while being authenticated on other valid technical evidence.
The basic requirements of continuity, uprightness, accurate transmission, freedom from anomalous contradiction, and absence of disqualifying hidden defects are not abandoned. A report is not automatically weak because it fails to match one particular compiler’s special selection criterion.
Example: a report in another respected collection may be proved sound, although no adequate evidence allows the critic to describe it as “on Bukhari’s condition” or “on Muslim’s condition.” Its independent soundness and its relation to special compilation standards are different judgments.