he replied, “He is your child. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘The child is attributed to the marital bed’ (1).” The man repeated his objection, and Ibn Abī Shuraiḥ answered him in exactly the same words.

The man then declared, “I do not accept that ruling.” Ibn Abī Shuraiḥ retorted, “That is open warfare,” and drew his sword. We threw ourselves upon him and said, “He is an ignorant man; he does not know what he is saying.”

I say: It would have been better for him to clarify the issue and tell the man, “You have the right to disclaim the child through liʿān (mutual imprecation),” but he was fiercely protective of the Sunnah and flared with anger on its behalf.

He died in Ṣafar of the year 392 AH, at the age of eighty-five.

Through his chain of transmission we possess elevated fascicles—almost one hundred of them—as well as the fascicle of Abū al-Jahm, the fascicle of Bībā, and the anecdotes of Shuʿbah.

The last of the disciples of his disciples to pass away was ʿAbd al-Jalīl ibn Abī Saʿd al-Harawī, who lived until 562 AH. The ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ruhāwī travelled to him, making al-Harawī the highest-ranking shaykh in his chain.

In the same year as Ibn Abī Shuraiḥ there also died: Abū ʿAlī ibn Ḥājib al-Kushānī; al-Ḥasan ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ḍarrāb; Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm al-Aṣīlī; Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUthmān ibn Jinnī the grammarian; the Chief Judge of Rayy, the man of letters Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Jurjānī; and the ḥāfiẓ al-Walīd ibn Bakr al-Andalusī.