Khalid was never a cobbler; he only sat in the cobblers’ market from time to time, and the nickname stuck. This was stated by Muhammad ibn Saʿd.

Fahd ibn Hayyan said, “Khalid never made a single pair of shoes. He would simply say, ‘Shape it like this,’ and so he was called al-Haddāʾ (‘the cobbler’).”

He was a ḥāfiẓ, held in esteem, and left behind no written book.

Shuʿbah related that Khalid al-Haddāʾ said, “I never wrote anything down except one lengthy hadith; once I had memorised it, I erased it.”

Khalid al-Taḥḥān reported: “I heard Khalid al-Haddāʾ say, ‘I never fashioned a sandal nor sold one. I only married a woman from Banū Mujāshiʿ, settled with her in the cobblers’ quarter there, and so people associated me with them.’ ”

Concerning him Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “Reliable (thabt),” and al-Nasāʾī said, “Trustworthy (thiqa).”

Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān said, “I heard my father speak of Khalid al-Haddāʾ and remark, ‘What harm would there be if he acted as Ṭāwūs did? Ṭāwūs would sit; if something reached him, he took it, otherwise he kept silent.’ ”

Ibn Saʿd said, “Khalid al-Haddāʾ was appointed over the Qubba⦗1⦘ and the customs house in Basra.

He died in 141 AH; it is also said that he died in 142 AH.” This was reported by Quraysh ibn Anas.

Aḥmad ibn Isḥaq informed us; Zakariyyā al-ʿUlabi informed us; ʿAbd al-Awwal al-Mālīnī informed us; Bībā⦗2⦘ daughter of ʿAbd al-Ṣamad informed us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Sāʿid narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn narrated to us; Khalid ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Khalid related from ʿIkrima, from ʿĀʾisha:

“The Prophet ﷺ observed iʿtikāf, and some of his wives joined him. One of them was experiencing istiḥāḍa and saw blood; she would sometimes place a basin beneath herself to catch the blood.”