It was difficult for me to obtain, while he would give it freely to others, so I spoke to him about it. He replied, “Because you understand the worth of this discipline.” (1)
He died in Shawwal of the year 413 AH, having reached advanced old age.
Al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī informed us; ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar informed us; Abū al-Waqt al-Sijzī informed us; Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī informed us; Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Jārūdī dictated to us. He said: ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar b. Muḥammad, the judge of Isfahan, narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad b. al-ʿAbbās al-Akhram narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad b. Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī narrated to us; he said: Zayd b. al-Ḥubāb narrated to us; he said: Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to us, from Usāmah b. Zayd, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not rattle off speech the way you do. Rather, he would speak a clear, decisive sentence, and everyone who heard him could memorize it.” (2)
246 – al-Sukkari, ʿAbd Allāh b. Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār
The shaykh, very long-lived and reliable: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Baghdādī, known as al-Sukkari, and also called Ibn Wajh al-ʿAjūz.
(1) See: al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 3/1055; Tabaqat al-Subki, 4/116.
(2) Chain of transmission: sound (hasan). Asama b. Zayd is reliable but occasionally errs, while the remaining transmitters are trustworthy. The report is recorded by Ahmad (6/138) through Wakiʿ b. Sufyan with the same isnad; also by Ahmad (6/257) through Ruh from Asama b. Zayd; by al-Tirmidhi in the Jamiʿ (no. 3639) and in the Shamaʾil (no. 223) through Humayd b. Masʿada from Humayd b. al-Aswad from Asama b. Zayd; further by Ahmad (6/118, 157), Muslim (no. 2493) and Abu Dawud (no. 3655) through Yunus from al-Zuhri; al-Bukhari cites it as a suspended (muʿallaq) report in his Sahih (no. 3568) saying, “al-Layth told me, Yunus related …”; and Bukhari gives it fully (no. 3567) through al-Hasan b. al-Sabah al-Bazzar, from Sufyan, from al-Zuhri, from ʿUrwa, from ʿAʾisha. Her statement, “la yasrudu sirdakum” means: he did not narrate in an uninterrupted torrent as you do. The verb *sarada* can likewise describe someone who “strings” fast-days one after another; and in the Qurʾanic verse “wa-qaddir fi s-sard” (Q 34:11) it denotes the orderly joining of chain-mail rings one by one until they fit together.
(*) Tarikh Baghdad, 10/199; al-ʿIbar, 3/125; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 3/208.