«ثم الراوي في الأصل قسمان»
Transmitters are, for the present purpose, divided into two principal classes.
The first consists of narrators recognized for knowledge, legal understanding and ijtihad. The text names the rightly guided caliphs and other Companions known for their juristic judgment. Their expertise is relevant not only to faithfully transmitting words but also to understanding their legal import.
This does not make the narrator a separate source of legislation. It affects how the reported meaning is weighed when an apparent analogy appears to point elsewhere.
Examples include Ibn Mas’ud, Ibn ‘Abbas, Ibn ‘Umar, Zayd b. Thabit and Mu‘adh b. Jabal.