“…I accept nothing from them except what I spend on works of righteousness.” In truth he was a penniless pauper.

He brought to Ibn al-Najjār several collections of “Forties” he had compiled. In them he reported—by direct audition—from Abū al-Waqt and from al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Musyābādī, a disciple of Abū Ṣāliḥ the mu’adhdhin. Later his fabrications came to light: he had claimed narrations he had never heard. The scholars tore up what they had written from him and he was publicly disgraced.

Ibn al-Dubaythī said: “He produced, on the authority of Abū al-Waqt, the lengthy Ḥadith of the Saqīfah, grafting it onto the chain of one of the three-link reports.”

Ibn al-Najjār said: “I heard more than one person relate that when kings visited Abū al-Manāqib and offered him money, he would refuse it, saying, ‘We have resolved to furnish carpets for Bayt al-Maqdis; if you wish to contribute to that, then by all means.’ They would give him the money, so he collected a sizable sum—but it was soon dissipated and devoid of blessing. Thereafter his reputation collapsed and his hypocrisy became notorious. I once asked him about his birth.”

He answered, “On the day of ʿĀshūrāʾ, in the year 548 AH.”

Al-Mundhirī said: “He died in 622 AH, or perhaps in 623 AH.”

His brother:

124 – The Imām Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Shāfiʿī

His father appointed him as a repeater-lecturer at the Niẓāmiyyah. He heard from Abū al-Azhar Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī a portion of the Musnad of Musaddad. He subsequently held the judiciary of Rūm, was deposed, settled in Irbil, and later came to Baghdad as an envoy.

Ibn al-Najjār said: “I heard a number of people accuse him of lying and criticize him.”