or when a number of scholars—whose words clearly display fairness—have likewise declared the man trustworthy.

These two men each took aim at the other: Mālik’s criticism left Muḥammad a little diminished, whereas Muḥammad’s words did not affect Mālik in the slightest. Mālik rose high and shone like a star. Muḥammad, for his part, still enjoys a standing proportionate to his merit, especially in the field of sīra; yet in the hadiths that concern legal rulings, his reports descend from the rank of sound (ṣaḥīḥ) to that of acceptable (ḥasan). Whenever he stands alone in a report, it is deemed munkar. This is my assessment of his status—Allah knows best.

Yūnus ibn Bukayr said, “I heard Shuʿbah say, ‘Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq is the leader of the hadith scholars because of his mastery of memorization.’”

ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh said, “I examined Ibn Isḥāq’s writings and found nothing amiss in them except for two hadiths, and it is quite possible that even those two are sound.”

One of the leading scholars remarked, “As for what is reported from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah—his saying, ‘How can he enter upon my wife?’—even if that were authentic, it would still have been permissible for her to write to him (1), for the people of Medina consider written correspondence allowable. The Prophet ﷺ once wrote a letter to the commander of a military detachment and said to him, ‘Do not read it until you reach such-and-such a place.’ When the commander arrived there, he opened the letter, read it, and acted upon it (2). And likewise…"