“al-Ṭawd.” On another occasion he glossed the word al-khishf (1) and said, “It is a bird.” Concerning the verse, “let him therefore perform righteous deeds” (al-Kahf 18:110), he stated: “It is in the accusative, functioning as a circumstantial adverb (ḥāl).”
It is said that he was born in 414 AH and lived for eighty-six years. He died in Shiraz on the twenty-seventh of Ramadan in the year 500 AH. I have already related some of his reports in my al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr and in Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (2).
It was also said that he inclined toward the Muʿtazilī school.
In that same year there passed away: Abū al-Fatḥ Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥaddād, the grandson of Ibn Mandah; the Shāfiʿī master Abū al-Muẓaffar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Khawāfī in Ṭūs; the jurist Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Zanjawīh al-Zanjānī (3); and Jaʿfar
…in it occurs: “I met Humayl b. Busra al-Faghari. He asked: ‘Where have you come from?’ When I told him, he said: ‘Had I met you before you went to him you would not have gone. I heard the Messenger of Allah say: ‘Mounts are not to be saddled except toward three mosques: the Sacred Mosque, the Messenger’s Mosque, and the Furthest Mosque.’ ”
Malik also records the report (1/108, Book of Jumuʿa, chapter on the hour on Friday), and through his chain it is transmitted by Ahmad (6/7) and al-Nasaʾi (3/113–114): from Yazid b. ʿAbd Allah b. al-Had, from Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. al-Harith al-Taymi, from Abu Salama b. ʿAbd al-Rahman b. ʿAwf, from Abu Hurayra. In the longer version Abu Hurayra says: “I met Busra b. Abi Busra al-Ghifari, who asked, ‘From where are you coming?’ I replied, ‘From al-Tur (Sinai).’ He said, ‘Had I met you before you set out, you would not have gone. I heard the Messenger of Allah say: ‘Mounts are not readied except for three mosques: the Sacred Mosque, this Mosque of mine, and the Mosque of Ilyaʾ, that is Bayt al-Maqdis…’ ”
The chain is sound; Ibn Hibban also declared it authentic (no. 1024). Two additional chains are found in Ahmad (6/7; 397–398), al-Tayalisi (1348; 2506) and al-Tahawi (1/242).
(1) al-khashf: a gazelle immediately after birth; *qabal* is the same animal when it first begins to walk.
(2) 2:683–684; after citing most of the reports given here he adds: “As for his misreadings of the wording, they are many.”
(3) His biography appeared under no. 145.