Abū Saʿīd’s personal name was Juʿthul ibn Hāʿān, the judge of Ifrīqiya. He died in 115 AH.
He belongs to the ranks of the truthful, yet no one is known to have transmitted from him except ʿUbayd Allah ibn Zahr—and the latter is somewhat weak.
Abū Dāwūd produced the report through Makhlad ibn Khālid al-Shaʿīrī, from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Ibn Jurayj, who said: “He wrote to Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd about this.” Al-Tirmidhī likewise recorded it through Maḥmūd ibn Ghaylān, from Wakīʿ, from Sufyān, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan (fair).
In our collection the isnād reaches us two ranks higher, and this ḥadith is among the narrations Yaḥyā acquired during his journey to Ifrīqiya.
ʿĀrim narrated from Ḥammād, who said: It was said to Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, “Did you hear your father say such-and-such?” He replied, “No, but the just, approved, trustworthy man—my peer in reliability—Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, related to me that he heard it from my father.”
Al-Nasāʾī said, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd is trustworthy, firmly grounded.” Al-ʿIjlī added, “He was judge over al-Ḥīra, and there Yazīd ibn Hārūn met him and transmitted one hundred and seventy ḥadiths from him.”
Al-Qaṭṭān, Abū ʿUbayd, Aḥmad, and several others held that he died in 143 AH, whereas Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Ibn Bukayr, and al-Fallās said it was in 144 AH.
Abū al-Qāsim Ibn Manda said: “The lines of transmission for Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd’s ḥadith—from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from ʿAlqama ibn Waqqāṣ, from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—back to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ state: ‘Deeds are only judged by intentions.’”
Those who reported it from Yaḥyā include: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān; Ibrāhīm ibn Adham; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUyayna al-Hilālī; Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī; Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Yaḥyā al-Madanī; Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣirma al-Madanī; Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Janāḥ; Ibrāhīm ibn Zakarīyā, the blind teacher; Ibrāhīm ibn Abī al-Yasaʿ; and Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd.