—Ibn Maʿīn added, “The people most firmly grounded in the narrations of Qatādah are Saʿīd, Hishām al-Dastuwāʾī, and Shuʿbah.”
Abū ʿAwānah said, “In our day there was no one with a better memory than Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah.”
Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Naysābūrī related: “Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah said to me, ‘When you report from me, say: “Saʿīd al-Aʿraj (the one who limps) narrated to us, from Qatādah al-Aʿmā (the Blind), from al-Ḥasan al-Aḥdab (the Hunchback).”’”
I (the author) say: I have never heard that al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was described as hunchbacked except in this anecdote.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “Qatādah and Saʿīd espoused the Qadari doctrine yet kept it hidden.”
I say: Perhaps the two of them later repented and retracted it, just as their shaykh did.
A group of our teachers informed us—among them Shaykh al-Islām Shams al-Dīn Ibn Abī ʿUmar, with authorisation—that ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad told them: Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Shaybānī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad informed us; Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Maslamah al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us; Yazīd narrated to us; Ibn Abī ʿArūbah narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh al-Dānāj, from Ḥuṣayn ibn al-Mundhir, who said:
“Walīd ibn ʿUqbah led the people in four rakʿahs of prayer while he was drunk; when he finished he turned to them and said, ‘Shall I add more for you?’ This was reported to ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī said to him, ‘Carry out the prescribed punishment on him.’ So he ordered that Walīd be flogged. ʿAlī said to al-Ḥasan, ‘Stand up and strike him.’ Al-Ḥasan replied, ‘What about you?’ ʿAlī said, ‘You have grown weak and weary. Stand up, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar.’
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar rose and began to strike him while ʿAlī counted. When the number reached forty, ʿAlī said, ‘Stop’—or he said, ‘Hold back.’ Then he added, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ administered forty, Abū Bakr administered forty, and ʿUmar during part of his caliphate administered forty and eighty; all of them are sunnah.’ (1)
This is a sound (ṣaḥīḥ) hadith, recorded by Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Qazwīnī.