contains two thousand shaykhs(1).
Abu Bakr al-Dashtī and Isḥāq al-Asadī recited to me; they said:
Ibn Rawāḥah recited to us, saying that Abu Ṭāhir al-Silafī had recited—his own composition:
How often have I ranged both length and breadth,
Crossing land after land;
Yet never have I found a friend
Free of grudges, who would satisfy me.
Ahmad(2) b. Salāmah informed me, through the ḥadith scholar ʿAbd al-Ghanī b. Surūr, that Abu Ṭāhir al-Silafī recited to us—his own verses—in Rajab of the year 566 AH:
Leave me the chains that lead to error;
Bring me instead those lofty chains—
Cheap to every ignoramus without exception,
Yet, to those who know their worth, beyond price.
Chains from the masters of ḥadith, from what
A consummate imam in every science transmitted:
From Mālik(3) or the accredited Maʿmar(4),
From Shuʿbah(5) or Sufyān(6) al-Hilālī,
And Sufyān(7) of Iraq, and al-Layth(8) of Egypt—
For in the past their like was never seen.