I recited this to Ishaq ibn Tariq; Yusuf ibn Khalil conveys it to you; Khalil ibn Badr and ʿAli ibn Qadshah related it to us (ḥ).
Ahmad ibn Salamah also transmitted to me—on the authority of Khalil and ʿAli—that Abu ʿAli al-Haddad had informed the two of them, saying:
“Abu Nuʿaym informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Faris informed us; Muhammad ibn ʿAsim narrated to us; Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us. ʿAsim, on the authority of Zirr, said:
‘I came to Safwan ibn ʿAssal, and he asked, “What has brought you?”
I replied, “The pursuit of knowledge.”
He said, “For the angels lower their wings for the seeker of knowledge, pleased with what he is seeking…,”’ and he mentioned the rest of the hadith (1).
120 – ʿAbbas ibn Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Ansari * (B, M, D, T, Q)
The son of Malik ibn Khalid al-Ansari, al-Khazraji, al-Saʿidi, the Madinan jurist—one of the trustworthy Followers (tabiʿin).
He narrated from his father, from Saʿid ibn Zayd al-ʿAdawi, Abu Hurayrah, Abu Humayd al-Saʿidi, and several others.
He was born around the year 25 AH, at the beginning of ʿUthman’s caliphate.
Those who transmitted from him include his two sons—Ubayy and ʿAbd al-Muhaymin—together with al-ʿAlaʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, Muhammad ibn Ishaq, ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Ghasil, and Fulayh ibn Sulayman.
He was declared reliable by Yahya ibn Maʿin and others.
Al-Hajjaj harassed him, beat him, and assaulted him;