al-Qaʿnabī. He also narrated from Abū Shuʿayb al-Ḥarrānī, Mūsā ibn Hārūn, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Marwazī, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Shawārib, and a host of others.

Al-Barqānī even took the liberty of citing a report from him in his own “Ṣaḥīḥ,” but he was mistaken; he later excused himself by saying that the chain was “lofty,” yet still affirmed, “He is not a reliable authority.” Al-Barqānī added, “I copied the Muwaṭṭaʾ from him, and when I returned Abū Bakr ibn Abī Saʿd said to me, ‘May Allah repay you for the expense you incurred.’ I then handed the copy over to a layman who in exchange gave me nothing but blank pages.”

Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī said, “As for Abū Bakr al-Mufīd, the chains of transmission he claimed were rejected.”

The ḥadith scholar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ruwayānī remarked, “I have never met anyone with a better memory than al-Mufīd.” (1)

Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣfahānī likewise praised his prodigious memory and even travelled to Jarjarāyā—one of the districts of Iraq—to learn from him.

Al-Khaṭīb related: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to me, from al-Mufīd, who said, ‘It was Mūsā ibn Hārūn who gave me the kunyah “al-Mufīd.”’” (2)

Al-Mālinī commented, “Al-Mufīd was a righteous man.”

I read before Aḥmad ibn Ḍiyāʾ al-Khaṭīb—ʿAtīq al-Salmānī conveys it to you—that Abū al-Qāsim ibn ʿAsākir, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us; Abū Ghālib Aḥmad and Yaḥyā, the two sons of al-Bannā, both said:

Al-Ḥasan ibn Ghālib, the Qurʾān-reciter, informed us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Mufīd dictated to us at Jarjarāyā; ʿUthmān ibn Khaṭṭāb narrated to us, saying, “I heard ʿAlī—may Allah ennoble his face—”