As for Abū Janāb (1) al-Kalbī, he transmitted from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said, “I lived alongside Ibn ʿAbbās for seven years.”

The compiler comments: Abū Janāb is not reliable, and the first view is the sounder.

Qabīṣah narrated—from Qays b. Muslim—that whenever evening fell al-Ḍaḥḥāk would weep; people would ask him why, and he would reply, “I do not know which of my deeds ascended today.” (2)

Sufyān al-Thawrī related—from Abū al-Sawdāʾ, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk (3)—that he said, “I found the people, and all they studied was scrupulous piety (waraʿ).”

Qurrah said, “The phrase al-Ḍaḥḥāk constantly repeated whenever he fell silent was: la ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā billāh (‘There is no power nor might except by Allah’).” (4)

Maymūn Abū ʿAbd Allāh narrated from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said, “It is incumbent upon everyone who learns the Qur’an to become a jurist,” after which he recited the divine words: “Be godly scholars because of what you have been teaching of the Book” (Āl ʿImrān 79).

Zuhayr b. Muʿāwiyah related—from Bashīr Abū Ismāʿīl, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk—that he said, “When I was eighty years old I was still vigorous and took part in the expeditions.”

More than one authority reported that al-Ḍaḥḥāk died in the year 102 AH. Abū Nuʿaym al-Mulāʾī said he passed away in 105 AH, while Ḥusayn b. al-Walīd and al-Naysābūrī placed his death in 106 AH.