the certificates of authorization (ijazat). He took them, altered the names that had been recorded in order to mask his claim; yet, by the blessing of the Qur’an, the affair rebounded in his favor and he was not exposed. A man was once reproached for reciting to him, and he replied, “I read with him for the sake of knowledge, but I do not believe a single letter of what he transmits.” (1)

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kattānī said: “I met Hibat Allāh al-Lālkāʾī, and he asked me, ‘Who is in Damascus?’ I mentioned al-Ahwāzī among them. He remarked, ‘Had he only been free of the reports he relates in the readings.’” (2)

Al-Kattānī went on: “He was prolific in ḥadīth and authored many works on the Qur’anic readings and their chains of transmission. He has a number of singular reports which he claims to have received both by narration and by direct recitation. Among those who declared him unreliable was Ibn Khayrūn.”

Al-Dānī said: “He studied the readings both by presentation (ʿarḍan) and by direct audition (samāʿan) from the disciples of Ibn Shannabūdh and Ibn Mujāhid. He possessed an extensive range of transmissions, was a precise memorizer, and taught in Damascus for a long time.”

I say: I nevertheless harbor reservations about the lofty isnāds he claims in the field of Qur’anic readings.

Ibn ʿAsākir, after citing a fabricated ḥadīth, said: “Al-Ahwāzī is suspect.”

I add: The ḥadīth was reported to me by Ibn Abī al-Khayr, from Ibn Bawsh, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from al-Ahwāzī. Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Aṭrābulsī narrated it to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan the judge, from al-Baghawī, from Hudbah, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Wakīʿ ibn ʿAdas, from Abū Razīn, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “I saw…"