“In Paradise there is a gate called al-Rayyān. On the Day of Resurrection the people of fasting will enter through it; no one else will be allowed to go in with them. When the last of them has entered, it will be closed.” ⦗1⦘

Al-Bukhārī recorded the report through Khalid, and Muslim through Ibn Abī Shaybah; our chain coincides with both of theirs.

He was born in the early 430s AH.

Among the teachers from whom he received ḥadith was his tutor Abū Ṭālib ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Dalwī, whose instruction he attended in 446 AH. Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyūyah narrated from him, making this his earliest shaykh. He also studied under Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Muslima; the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Aḥmad al-Bukhārī; the ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr ibn Thābit al-Khaṭīb; Abū Muḥammad ibn Hazar-Mardā al-Ṣarīfīnī; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Naqqūr; the imām of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Tamīm; Abū al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn Makkī ibn ʿUthmān al-Azdī—whom he encountered in Jerusalem; Abū al-Ghanāʾim Muḥammad ibn al-Gharraʾ; and many others of their generation and those who followed them.

He recited the Qurʾān to a large audience and was regarded as the reciter of the traditionists in Baghdad. He wrote, compiled, and imparted knowledge. His technical standing in the discipline was moderate, yet he was marked by firm piety, devoted worship, eloquence, and a beautiful recitation.

Those who narrated from him include the judge Abū ʿAlī ibn Sukkara, Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir, Abū al-Fath ibn al-Baṭṭī, and a small group besides them, for he passed away before his transmissions could be widely disseminated.