I add: He lived for eighty-five years and died in Basra. I have compiled his biography in two fascicles of my History of Damascus, and a number of his higher-level isnads have come down to me.

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim read it to us, reporting from Abū al-Yaman Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan—who had written to Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr—that Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī informed us, that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī informed us, that Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar, the jurist, related to us in person in the year 445 AH, saying: Abū Muḥammad ibn Māsī narrated to us, Abū Muslim al-Kajjī narrated to us, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī narrated to us, Ibn ʿAwn narrated to us, from al-Shaʿbī, who said, “I heard al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr say:

‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—and, by Allah, I shall never hear anyone after him say, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say”—declare:

“Indeed the lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and between the two are doubtful matters—he may have said, ‘a doubtful matter.’ I will give you an illustration: Allah has a protected pasture, and the protected pasture of Allah is what He has forbidden. Whoever grazes his flock around the pasture is liable to mingle with the pasture—he may have said, ‘Whoever dallies with what is suspect is likely soon to venture into it (1).’”’

This narration is agreed upon.

Muslim also transmitted it through ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather al-Layth, from Khālid ibn Yazīd, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, from ʿAwn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from al-Shaʿbī. It seems that our shaykh Ibn al-Ṣayrafī heard it from Muslim himself.

I likewise heard it from Ismāʿīl ibn al-Farrāʾ and Aḥmad ibn al-ʿImād, who said: Abū Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah informed us, Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Daqqāq informed us, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī al-Daqqāq informed us, Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿaddal informed us, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar and al-Razzāz narrated to us, as did Saʿdān