We were informed that some people said to Mālik, “You criticize the ḥadīths of the Iraqis, yet you still transmit from Ayyūb?”
He replied, “I have never reported to you from anyone unless Ayyūb is more reliable than he.”
Ahmad ibn Salamah informed us; from Muḥammad ibn Abī Zayd al-Karrānī (1); Maḥmūd ibn Ismāʿīl informed us; Ibn Qādshāh informed us; Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī informed us; al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Asfāṭī narrated to us; Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb narrated to us: I heard Ḥammād ibn Zayd say, “I heard Ayyūb mention the Muʿtazilah and remark,
‘All that this faction revolves around is their claim: “There is nothing in the heaven.”’”
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “Ayyūb has about eight hundred ḥadīths.”
I say: The scholars agree that he died in 131 AH in Baṣrah during the plague, at the age of sixty-three.
The last person to transmit his ḥadīths with an elevated chain was Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Bukhārī.
Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad the jurist, Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, and a group of scholars granted us authorization and said: ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ghailān informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Shāfiʿī informed us; Mūsā ibn Sahl al-Washshāʾ narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah narrated to us, from Ayyūb, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—who said:
“Indeed, the makers of these images will be punished on the Day of Resurrection, and it will be said to them, ‘Give life to what you created.’”
Muslim recorded it (2).
ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān and Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad informed us: Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir informed us; Saʿīd ibn al-Bannāʾ informed us; ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Bundār informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhliṣ narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid narrated to us; Abū al-Ashʿath narrated to us; Ḥammād