Hadith same text are each counted as individual ahadith. If, say, ten companions record a text reporting a single incident in the life of Muhammad, hadith scholars can count this as ten hadiths. So Musnad Ahmad, for example, has over 30,000 hadiths—but this count includes texts that are repeated in order to record slight variations within the text or within the chains of narrations. Identifying the narrators of the various texts, comparing their narrations of the same texts to identify both the soundest reporting of a text and the reporters who are most sound in their reporting occupied experts of hadith
Hadith terminology in and of itself"with the same definition a "ṣaḥīḥ hadith" except that the competence of one of its narrators is less than complete; while a "hadith" that is "ḥasan ligharihi" ("ḥasan due to external factors") is determined to be "ḥasan" due to corroborating factors such as numerous chains of narration. He states that it is then comparable to a "ṣaḥīḥ hadith" in its religious authority. A "ḥasan hadith" may rise to the level of being "ṣaḥīḥ" if it is supported by numerous "isnād" (chains of narration); in this case that "hadith" would be "ḥasan lithatihi" (""ḥasan" in and of itself")