Hadith of the Ark ""perished whoever turned away from it"" also comes along." And in his another book, Al-Heithami indicates this hadith as authentic (sahih). According to Dahlan, the authenticity of this hadith is confirmed by different sources. The hadith implies the absolute priority of "Ahl al-Bayt" to all others, otherwise Muhammad would have forbidden to follow them. According to Shia scholars, the only path to salvation is by following the "Ahl al-Bayt", so they must be infallible ("Ma'sum"), otherwise they will mislead their followers. If they are infallible, they must be Imam definitely. According to this hadith, they are the criterion of distinguishing
Hadith terminology terminology, it refers to a "hadith" not fulfilling all of the conditions necessary to be deemed "mutawatir". "Hadith ahad" consists of three sub-classifications also relating to the number of narrators in the chain or chains of narration: An "ʻaziz" () "hadith" is any "hadith" conveyed by two narrators at every point in its "isnād" (chain of narrators). A "gharib" () "hadith" is one conveyed by only one narrator. Al-Tirmidhi's understanding of a "gharib hadith", concurs to a certain extent with that of the other traditionists. According to him a "hadith" may be classified as "gharib" for one of the following