“The sky is all yours—so lay your eggs and cackle away… (1)
Abū ʿĀmir, the guardian of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, has passed away; now whoever wishes may say whatever he wishes.

Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir said: “Al-ʿAbdarī was the most retentive shaykh I ever met, and he was a jurist of the Dāwūdī school. He related that he entered Damascus during the lifetime of Abū al-Qāsim ibn Abī al-ʿAlāʾ. I heard him, when Mālik was mentioned, remark, ‘A rough, coarse fellow—he struck Hishām ibn ʿAmmār with a whip.’ I read to him Al-Amwāl by Abū ʿUbayd, and when a statement of Abū ʿUbayd came up he said, ‘He was nothing but a heedless donkey (2), ignorant of jurisprudence.’

“I was told that he also said about Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, ‘A one-eyed reprobate.’ One day we gathered at Ibn al-Samarqandī to read the book Al-Kāmil. It contained the phrase, ‘al-Saʿdī said such-and-such,’ whereupon he declared, ‘Ibn ʿAdī is lying; that is only the statement of Ibrāhīm al-Jawzajānī.’ I said to him, ‘But it is al-Saʿdī’s wording. How long must we put up with your bad manners? You speak thus about Ibrāhīm, call Mālik a coarse rustic, and belittle Abū ʿUbayd as well?!’

“He grew angry, began to tremble, and said, ‘Ibn al-Khāḍibah, al-Baradānī and others used to fear me, and now it has come to this—that you speak to me in such a way?!’

“Ibn al-Samarqandī answered him, ‘This is tit for tat.’

“I added, ‘We shall respect you only so long as you respect the imams.’

“He retorted, ‘By Allah, I know of the science of hadith what others do not…’”