So I mentioned that to Saʿīd, and he said, “Ikrimah has lied; I heard Ibn ʿAbbās say, ‘The best course you can follow is to lease uncultivated land year by year.’” (1)
Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm reported—through aṣ-Ṣalt ibn Dīnār: “I asked Ibn Sīrīn about Ikrimah, and he said, ‘It would not displease me were he to be among the people of Paradise, yet he is a liar.’”
ʿĀrim also narrated—on the authority of aṣ-Ṣalt ibn Dīnār: “I said to Ibn Sīrīn, ‘Ikrimah harms us and says things we detest.’ He replied gently, ‘I ask Allah to take his life and relieve us of him.’” (2)
Wuhayb ibn Khālid said: “I heard Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and Ayyūb mention Ikrimah. Yaḥyā declared, ‘He was a liar,’ whereas Ayyūb said, ‘He was not a liar.’”
Hishām ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Ikrimah al-Makhzūmī (3) said: “I heard Ibn Abī Dhīʾb say, ‘I saw Ikrimah, and he was unreliable.’” This is how ʿImrān ibn Mūsā ibn Mujāshiʿ reported it from Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir on his authority. Al-ʿUqaylī, however, transmitted it from Muḥammad ibn Zurayq ibn Jāmiʿ—also from Ibrāhīm—but stated instead, “He was reliable.” Allah knows best, though the first report appears more plausible.
Rajāʾ ibn Abī Salamah said: “I heard Ibn ʿAwn say, ‘They kept pressing Ayyūb until they extracted from him what he had not intended’—meaning his narrations from Ikrimah.”
Ḍamrah related: “It was said to Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, ‘Do you narrate from Ikrimah?’ He replied, ‘That is Ayyūb’s doing.’ The questioner said, ‘Ikrimah?’ and we answered, ‘Ikrimah.’”