Peer relationships are assessed through three notable dimensions:
1. Age (sinn): closeness in age or period of birth.
2. Encounter (luqiyy): comparable opportunities to meet or hear from earlier scholars.
3. Teachers (akhdh ʿan al-mashāyikh): having learned from a similar circle of teachers or scholarly generation.
All three dimensions need not be identical. One narrator may be somewhat older while both have heard from the same leading teachers in comparable periods. Birth dates alone therefore do not always settle whether they are peers.
A proper inquiry compares shared teachers, dates of hearing, and the actual relationship of study and transmission.