Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād relates from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who said:

“Al-Aʿmash and Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb were mawālī (clients), whereas Abū Ḥaṣīn was an Arab. Had that not been the case, al-Aʿmash would never have treated him as he did. Abū Ḥaṣīn narrated only a few reports, and those he transmitted were sound.”

He was asked, “Whose narrations are more authentic, his or Abū Isḥāq’s?” He replied, “Abū Ḥaṣīn’s traditions are more reliable because they are fewer in number. In the same way, Manṣūr’s narrations are sounder than al-Aʿmash’s, for he too narrated less.”

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-ʿIjlī said, “Abū Ḥaṣīn was an eminent shaykh, of high standing, and a man of Sunnah.”

It is said that Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ was the most prolific transmitter from him, preserving four hundred hadith on his authority.

Al-ʿIjlī also said elsewhere, “He was trustworthy, a supporter of ʿUthmān, a righteous man, firmly grounded in hadith. He was older than al-Aʿmash, and the gap between them was considerable.”

Hostility arose between the two until al-Aʿmash left him and moved to the district of Banū Ḥarām.

Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr reports: Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī told us, “I heard Wakīʿ say, ‘Abū Ḥaṣīn used to say, “My recitation is better than al-Aʿmash’s.”’”

Both men were in the mosque of Banī Kāhil. Al-Aʿmash said to a man reciting to him, “Pronounce the hamzah in al-ḥūt (‘the fish’).” The man did so. The next morning, during the dawn prayer, Abū Ḥaṣīn recited “Nūn,” and when he reached the phrase “like the Companion of the Fish,” he inserted the hamzah.

When he finished, al-Aʿmash said, “Abū Ḥaṣīn, you have broken the fish’s back!”

He replied, “So what report has reached you?”

He answered, “What has reached us is that he has slandered him.”

Al-Aʿmash swore that he would have the legal punishment carried out against him. Members of Banū Asad tried to intercede, but he refused. Fifty of them then declared, “By Allah, we will testify that his mother is exactly as he claimed.”

Al-Aʿmash therefore swore never again to live among them, and he moved away. (1)

Ibn Maʿīn, al-Nasāʾī, and several other scholars said: “Abū Ḥaṣīn is reliable.”