with the very first strike (1); and likewise the ḥadīth, “The child of fornication shall never enter Paradise” (2).

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: “I asked al-Dāraquṭnī, ‘Why did al-Bukhārī omit Suhayl from the Ṣaḥīḥ?’

He answered, ‘I can find no excuse for him. Al-Nasāʾī, whenever he related a ḥadīth through Suhayl, would say: “By Allah, Suhayl is better than Abū al-Yamān, Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr, and others—and al-Bukhārī’s book is full of narrations from those men. He even included Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, and I can see no justification for that.”’

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said: “A brother of Suhayl died, and the grief he felt caused him to forget a great deal of ḥadīth.”

Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr reported from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn that he said, “The ḥadīth scholars have always been wary of his narrations.” On another occasion he remarked, “He is weak,” and at yet another, “He is not particularly strong.”

It has been said that Mālik only received from him before his memory declined.

Al-Ḥākim stated: “Muslim recorded many reports from him, most of them only as corroborative evidence.”

It is said that approximately four hundred ḥadīths are transmitted from Suhayl.

We were informed by Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Qazwīnī, who related to us Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd; and we were informed by Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad and a group of others, who said: ‘Al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī Bakr narrated to us’; they both said: ‘He narrated to us…’