Another exceptional form is a Companion narrating from a Successor. Companions belong to an earlier generation, yet a Companion may receive a particular report from a Successor.
For example, a Successor may have received a report through another Companion or a reliable source and then conveyed it to a Companion who had not attended that original session. The Successor serves as the source for that specific item despite the Companion's greater generational seniority.
Two distinctions follow. Generational precedence does not guarantee being the immediate teacher in every chain; and a report is marfūʿ, mawqūf, or maqṭūʿ according to the attribution of its content, not the unusual direction of the narrators' generations.