— Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Ṣafwān, on the authority of Umayya ibn Khālid, reported:
I said to Shuʿbah, “Why do you not narrate from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān?”
He replied, “I have abandoned his hadith.”
I said, “You narrate from Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-ʿArzamī and leave out ʿAbd al-Malik, even though the latter’s narrations were sound?”
He answered, “It is precisely because of their ‘soundness’ that I ran from them.”

Al-Khaṭīb commented: “Shuʿbah erred in preferring Muḥammad and abandoning ʿAbd al-Malik, for the leading authorities of tradition are unanimous that Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh’s hadith is worthless and his transmission rejected, whereas their praise of ʿAbd al-Malik is widespread.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad narrated from his father that “he is reliable.”
Al-ʿIjlī said, “Reliable, firmly established.”
Ibn ʿAmmār said, “Reliable, authoritative.”
Abū Nuʿaym said, “Sufyān narrated to us from ʿAbd al-Malik,” and al-Fasawī added, “Reliable, precise, and a jurist.”
Abū Nuʿaym also said, “He died in 145 AH.”

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm informed us; Naṣr ibn Jarw informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Salfī informed us; Abū al-Baqāʾ al-Ḥabbāl informed us; Zayd ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Duḥaym narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us; Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd informed us—from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī—who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Do not turn your homes into graves; pray in them.” (1)