قَالَ: وَقَالَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ: حَدَّثَنِي الْعَبَّاسُ بْنُ أَبِي رِزْمَةَ، قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ عَبْدَ اللَّهِ، يَقُولُ: «بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَ الْقَوْمِ الْقَوَائِمُ»، يَعْنِي الْإِسْنَادَ.
Translation: Through al-ʿAbbās b. Abī Rizmah, Ibn al-Mubārak said: “Between us and the people stand the supports,” meaning the chains of transmission.
Qawāʾim evokes the legs or supports on which something stands. The image stresses that an attributable chain sustains the evidentiary claim; it is a metaphor, not a new technical condition separate from chain verification.