وَهُوَ إِنَّا نَعْمِدُ إِلَى جُمْلَةِ مَا أُسْنِدَ مِنَ الْأَخْبَارِ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، فَنَقْسِمُهَا عَلَى ثَلَاثَةِ أَقْسَامٍ وَثَلَاثِ طَبَقَاتٍ مِنَ النَّاسِ، عَلَى غَيْرِ تَكْرَارٍ،
The condition is that we turn to the body of reports transmitted with chains from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, dividing them into three categories associated with three tiers of transmitters, without unnecessary repetition.
“The body of attributed reports” denotes the corpus from which reports are considered, not a promise to include every report without exception. Al-Nawawī likewise clarifies *jumlat* as the main body rather than unrestricted totality.
The three divisions are tied to tiers of transmitters and their relative standing. Their attributes follow later; one should not prematurely equate these tiers with three chronological generations or three separately published volumes.