46 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAlqamah ibn Waqāṣ al-Laythī * (4, Kh)

An imam, ḥadith scholar, and trustworthy transmitter, he was known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Laythī, the Medinan. He was a close companion of Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and the chief narrator of his reports.

He related ḥadith from him, and also from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥāṭib, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥunayn, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, and from his own father, ʿAmr ibn ʿAlqamah.

Among those who transmitted from him are Mālik, al-Thawrī, Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād, Abū Usāmah, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Muḥammad ibn Bishr, Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAdī, Saʿīd ibn ʿĀmir, and many others.

His ḥadith are classed as ḥasan (fair).

Al-Nasāʾī and others said, “There is nothing objectionable about him.”

Abū Ḥātim said, “His narrations are sound.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported: “I heard Ibn Maʿīn asked about Suhayl, al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, and ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh. He replied, ‘Their ḥadith is not a proof.’”

He was then asked, “What about Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr?”

He answered, “He is above them.”

I say: al-Bukhārī cited him only alongside another narrator for corroboration, and Muslim likewise used him as a supporting narrator.

ʿAbbās reported from Yaḥyā that he said, “Ibn ʿAjlān is more reliable than Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr,” and he added, “yet Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr is dearer to me than Ibn Isḥāq.”

Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd was asked about Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr. He said to the inquirer, “Do you want leniency, or shall we be strict?” The man replied, “Be strict.” He said, “He is not of the sort you are targeting.”