145 – Usāmah ibn Zayd, Abū Zayd al-Laythī * (4, M, as a follower)
He was an Imām, a learned and trustworthy man—Abū Zayd al-Laythī, their freedman, from Madinah.
He narrated from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, Nāfiʿ al-ʿUmarī, ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, Saʿīd al-Maqburī, and a number of others.
Those who transmitted from him include Ḥātim ibn Ismāʿīl, Ibn Wahb, Abū Ḍamrah Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, Abū Nuʿaym, and others.
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said: “There is nothing wrong with him.”
Al-Nasāʾī said: “He is not strong.”
The verdicts of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān about him are inconsistent.
Ibn Maʿīn reported: “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd disliked the fact that Usāmah ibn Zayd narrated from ʿAṭāʾ, from Jābir, that a man said, ‘O Messenger of Allāh, I shaved before I slaughtered (1).’ It is actually mursal.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd abandoned …"
(*) Principal biographical sources: Khalifa, Tarikh, p. 426; Khalifa, Tabaqat, no. 273; al-Bukhari, Tarikh, 2 / 20; al-Tabari, 4 / 197, 210-211, 256, 366, 405; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-saghir, 1 / 19, 23, 120, 181; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-taʿdil, 2 / 284; Ibn Hibban, Kitab al-majruhin, 1 / 179; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-kamal, vol. 78; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-tahdhib, 1 / 50 / 2; idem, Mizan al-iʿtidal, 1 / 174-175; al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 8 / 382; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, 1 / 208-210; idem, Khulasa tadhhib al-kamal, p. 26; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 1 / 234.
(1) Ibn Majah (no. 3052, Book of the Rites) transmits—through Harun b. Saʿid al-Misri, ʿAbd Allah b. Wahb, Usama b. Zayd, ʿAtaʾ b. Abi Rabah—from Jabir b. ʿAbd Allah: “On the Day of Sacrifice at Mina the Messenger of Allah sat for the people. A man came and said: ‘Messenger of Allah, I shaved before slaughtering.’ He replied: ‘No harm.’ Another came and said: ‘Messenger of Allah, I slaughtered before stoning.’ He replied: ‘No harm.’ Nothing was asked of him that day concerning an action performed before another except that he said: ‘No harm.’” The chain is hasan (reliable).
Al-Busayri states in Misbah al-zujaja: “Its isnad is sahih; all its narrators are trustworthy.” The same hadith is found in Malik, 1 / 421; al-Bukhari, 3 / 454-455; Muslim (no. 1306), Book of Hajj, Chapter: “One who shaves before slaughtering”; and Abu Dawud (no. 2014), Book of the Rites, Chapter: “Whoever puts one rite before another.”