When encountering differences attributed to Companions and Successors, begin by identifying the discipline: report criticism, occasion of revelation, vocabulary, law, or abrogation. Then distinguish what each opinion claims and how it is supported.
Next decide whether the apparent difference reflects separate examples or varying levels of detail, or whether it constitutes a genuinely competing assertion. Reconcile compatible accounts, but where reconciliation fails, prefer the interpretation with stronger evidence.
Summary: sound exegesis resolves disagreement not by counting statements but by carefully distinguishing terminology, context, transmission, and meaning.