Yahya al-Qattan said, “Fitr used to keep repeating, ‘I heard, I heard,’ yet al-Masʿudi had a better memory than he did.

Al-ʿUqayli relates: Muhammad ibn ʿIsa narrated to us, ʿAmr ibn ʿAli narrated to us, I heard Yahya ibn Saʿid say:

‘Fitr narrated to us, from ʿAtaʾ:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever is afflicted by a calamity, let him remember his calamity in losing me, for that is the greatest of all calamities.” (1)

I said to Yahya ibn Saʿid, “Did he actually say, ‘ʿAtaʾ narrated to us’?”

He replied, “Of what use is it to say, ‘ʿAtaʾ narrated to us,’ when he never even heard from him?! I heard him say:
‘Abu Khalid al-Walibi narrated to us,’—this statement came from al-Fallas. Then Yazid ibn Harun arrived among us and related, on the authority of Fitr, from Abu Khalid al-Walibi himself.

Then al-ʿUqayli said: Muhammad narrated to us, Salih narrated to us, ʿAli narrated to us; he said:

‘I said to Yahya, regarding a hadith of Fitr, “He came out to me while they were standing.” Yahya responded, “It is only…” and then said to me, “Abu Khalid al-Walibi narrated to us.”

I said to Yahya, “People insert between them Zaydah and Ibn Nashit.” Yahya replied, “He likewise once said to me, ‘Abu al-Tufayl narrated to us about the pebbles of the jamarat,’ and later—so I have been informed—he inserted a man between the two of them as well.”

I asked Yahya, “Do you rely on his formula, ‘So-and-so narrated to us…’?”

He said, “ ‘So-and-so narrated to us’ with an uninterrupted chain?”

I answered, “Yes.”

He said, “No.”

I asked, “Was that merely his habitual manner of speaking?”

He replied, “Yes.” (2)

More than one authority stated that Fitr ibn Khalifah died in 153 AH. (3) Others said he died in 155 AH.

It is not unlikely that he did meet the aforementioned teachers, but he was not especially precise, along with—