1. Collect the routes: Assemble the relevant chains and wordings of the report.
2. Identify the difference: Is it a compatible addition, a change in chain connection, or a direct contradiction?
3. Assess transmitters: Examine general reliability, precision, relationship to the teacher, and documented individual errors.
4. Weigh indications: Consider superior preservation, independence of routes, corroboration, and other grounds of preference.
5. Limit the ruling to the evidence: Apply mahfuz/shadh or ma`ruf/munkar to the demonstrated conflict rather than indiscriminately grading all reports from those narrators.
Example: Where a weak narrator raises a report to the Prophet while several reliable transmitters preserve it as mawquf, the latter may be ma`ruf and the former munkar in this comparison.