I read to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim in the year 693 AH, from Zayd ibn Ḥasan, who said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Shaybānī informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-ʿAbbāsī informed us; ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm dictated to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Ziyād ibn Ayyūb narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us; ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal narrated from Anas, who said:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about fasting while travelling. He replied, “Whoever breaks the fast has availed himself of the concession, and whoever fasts—fasting is better.” (1)
357 – Ibn Ḥinzabah, Jaʿfar ibn al-Faḍl ibn Jaʿfar al-Baghdādī
The Imām, ḥāfiẓ, reliable authority, and consummate vizier, Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar, son of the vizier Abū al-Fatḥ al-Faḍl ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Furāt al-Baghdādī, later a resident of Egypt.
He was born in Baghdad in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of the year 308 AH.
His father served as vizier for al-Muqtadir in the year the caliph was slain, and his father’s uncle, the great vizier Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, also held the vizierate for al-Muqtadir on several occasions.
He was killed in 332 AH (2). And Abū al-Faḍl served as vizier.
(1) All its transmitters are reliable. The same report is recorded by Malik (1/295), al-Bukhari (4/157), and Muslim (no. 1121) from Anas b. Malik: “We travelled with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during Ramadan; neither did the one who was fasting reproach the one who broke his fast, nor did the one who broke his fast reproach the one who was fasting.”
A related narration from Aisha states that Hamza b. Amr al-Aslami, who was given to frequent fasting, asked the Prophet ﷺ: “Shall I fast while travelling?” He replied: “If you wish, then fast; and if you wish, break the fast.”
(*) Principal biographical sources: al-Khatib, Tarikh Baghdad, 7:234-235; Yaqut, Mu jam al-Udaba, 7:163-177; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Ayan, 1:346-350; al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 3:1022-1024; Ibn al-Imad, al-Ibar, 3:49-50; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, vol. 4, fol. 84b; Ibn Shakir, Fawat al-Wafayat, 1:292-294; al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 11:118-122; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 11:329; Ibn Taghri Bardi, al-Nujum al-Zahira, 4:203; al-Suyuti, Husn al-Muhadara, 1:352-353; idem, Tabaqat al-Huffaz, p. 405; Ibn al-Sabba gh, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3:135-136.
(2) See Zirikli, al-A lam, 4:324, which records that he was killed in 312/924. The biography of this Ali b. Muhammad has already been given under the eighteenth stratum.