360 – The grandson of Ibn Khuzaymah, Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl al-Sulamī*
The venerable shaykh and ḥadith scholar: Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Khuzaymah ibn al-Mughīrah al-Sulamī, of Nishapur.
He received a large share of his learning from his grandfather—the “Imam of the Imams”—and also from Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Masarjisī, and their peers.
Among those who transmitted from him were al-Ḥākim, Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Masrūr, Abū Saʿd al-Kanjarūdhī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, Abū Saʿd Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm the Qurʾān-reciter, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī the Qurʾān-reciter, and many others.
Al-Ḥākim said: “In 368 AH I convened a ḥadith session for him. I entered the room where his grandfather’s books were kept and brought out two hundred and fifty fascicles from his authentic auditions. I selected ten of them for him and said, ‘Leave the originals with me for safekeeping.’ He refused, took them, and distributed them among the people. When I left, he turned to other books and read from them. Later, in 384 AH, he fell ill and lost his reason. I came to him afterward to seek narration, but found him no longer lucid.
“He died in Jumādā al-Ūlā of 387 AH and was buried in his grandfather’s house.”
I say: I do not think anyone heard from him except while he was still of sound mind, for once a person’s sanity is gone, how could receiving ḥadith from him be possible? This differs from one who merely deteriorates, forgets, and grows senile.