and Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb. Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; the two of them said:

Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Thābit al-Bunānī, from Shuʿayb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said:

“I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr say: The Prophet ﷺ was never seen eating while reclining, nor did two men ever follow directly upon his heel.” (1)

Thus Shuʿayb states explicitly that he heard it from ʿAbd Allāh himself.

After that, Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān, who had first been reluctant to grant lenient acceptance to ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, was led by his own reasoning to deem him trustworthy. He wrote:

“The correct approach regarding ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb is that he should be transferred from this section to the History of the Trustworthy Narrators, for his uprightness has already been established.

As for the objectionable reports in his narration when he says, ‘from my father, from my grandfather,’ they are to be treated just as we treat discontinuous and mursal material transmitted by other reliable narrators: the interrupted and mursal reports are left aside, and the sound, connected report is taken as evidence.”

This makes it clear that Ibn Ḥibbān’s settled view held two points: (1) ʿAmr is reliable in himself, and (2) his transmission “from his father, from his grandfather” is sometimes broken (munqaṭiʿ) or mursal. Undeniably, part of it is fully connected musnad material, while part of it may have reached him only by discovering it in writing (wijādah) or by direct audition; this, therefore, remains open to examination and possibility.

Accordingly, we do not rank ʿAmr’s compilation “from his father, from his grandfather” among the categories of indisputable ṣaḥīḥ, both because of the element of wijādah and because it contains objectionable reports.

His narrations must be examined: whatever is objectionable should be avoided, while the remainder may be cited in the works of Sunan and legal rulings, with the isnād judged worthy of improvement. Indeed, a number of leading scholars have relied upon him and, in general, declared him trustworthy; only a few have withheld complete endorsement, and I know of no one who has altogether abandoned him.

Shurayk, from Layth, from Mujāhid, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, said: “Nothing inclines me …”