The Purpose Of Imams In Islam
For Sunnis there is no theological concept of of imamat. The only leader is Prophet Mohammad saw. Scholars especially those who helped gather Sunnah are generally called imams for reverence. For Shias, there is a theological concept of divinely appointed imams that people have to follow. There is no basis for it in the Quran and the Sunnah.
So for sunni the only imam is Prophet Mohammad saw. As you said imam helped to collect Hadith. How they did that? What were their sources? When did that started, can you please list the imams and their era as well as their work.
Thank you for this link, but that doesn’t satisfy me. My question is still like why All these imams started doing this? And how do we know that these Hadith and sunnah have no errors in it?