Those who narrated from him include al-Ḥakam, Qatādah, Manṣūr, al-Aʿmash, Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and others.
He was counted among the distinguished and learned freedmen.
He died in the year 100 AH; some say before 100, while others maintain that he passed away in 101 AH.
His narrations are cited in the Six Books.
A diligent seeker of knowledge, he used to commit what he heard to writing.
Manṣūr said, “Whenever Sālim narrated, he did so at great length, whereas Ibrāhīm, when he narrated, was concise (1). I mentioned this to Ibrāhīm, and he replied, ‘Sālim used to write.’ ”
Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ, reporting from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, said that ʿAlqamah, al-Aswad, and Ibn Nuḍaylah allowed Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd to sell the clientage (walāʾ) of one of his freedmen to ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth for twenty thousand (2), so that he might use the proceeds to support his worship.
Ibn Saʿd said, “They claim he died during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.”
Abū Nuʿaym, however, stated, “Rather, he died in the caliphate of Sulaymān. He was reliable and narrated many ḥadiths.”
He also said, “It is reported that Abū al-Jaʿd had six sons: two were Shiʿīs, two Murjiʾīs, and two Khārijīs. Their father would say, ‘Allah has set you at variance with one another.’ ”
I say: They were ʿUbayd, ʿImrān, Ziyād, Muslim, and ʿAbd Allāh (3).
When a transmitter says merely “so-and-so” or the like, the hadith conveyed in this vague way is classed as weak. If, however, he explicitly states “I heard” (samiʿtu) or “he related to us” (haddathana) while in fact he never heard it from his shaykh, he is no longer a mudallis but a liar and a flagrant sinner; his narration is therefore rejected outright.
(1) The report is cited in al-Tabaqat, 6/291. The term jazm literally means “cutting off”; here it signifies that the narrator does not quote the hadith in full. The wording preserved in Tahdhib al-Kamal is: “I said to Ibrahim, ‘Why are the reports of Salim ibn Abi al-Jaʿd more complete than yours?’ He replied, ‘Because he used to write them down.’
Concerning Ibrahim al-Nakhai’s statement, “There is no reliable marfuʿ report; the takbir is voiced jazm and the salam is voiced jazm,” al-Zamakhshari explains that jazm here means reciting them quickly, without prolonging the vowels, probing the articulation, inserting excessive hamza, or undue lengthening—rather, one clips the vowels.
The explanation found in some later sources that jazm means “leaving the word-final letters vowelless and uninflected” is entirely mistaken, for the opposition of jazm to ʾirab is a much later terminological development.
(2) Al-Tabaqat gives the figure as ten thousand.
(3) The sixth item is not mentioned.