Abu Ishaq al-Jawzajani said: “The people relish Ibn Ishaq’s narrations, yet he was charged with several kinds of innovation.”
Saʿid ibn Dawud al-Zubayri relates—from ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Darawardi—that
“We were in Ibn Ishaq’s study circle learning when he nodded off for a moment. On waking he said, ‘Just now I saw in a dream that a man entered the mosque carrying a rope, placed it around the neck of a donkey, and led it out. Before long a man actually came into the mosque with a rope, put it round Ibn Ishaq’s neck, and dragged him away.’ He was then taken before the governor and flogged (1).”
Al-Zubayri comments: “It was over the question of qadar (predestination).”
Abu al-ʿAbbas Ibn ʿUqda reported: Musa ibn Harun ibn Ishaq told us, “I heard Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr say: ‘Ibn Ishaq was accused of holding Qadari beliefs, but he was in fact the furthest of people from them.’”
Yaʿqub ibn Shaybah said: “I heard Ibn Numayr—when Ibn Ishaq was mentioned—remark, ‘When he narrates from recognised transmitters he actually met, his reports are sound and he is truthful. The difficulty lies in his reporting fabricated hadith from unknown narrators.’”
Ishaq ibn Ahmad ibn Khalaf al-Bukhari, the hadith master, said: “I heard Muhammad ibn Ismaʿil say, ‘Muhammad ibn Ishaq must have a thousand hadith for which he is the sole authority; no one else shares them with him.’”
Sulayman ibn Ishaq al-Jallab said: “I asked Ibrahim al-Harbi, ‘Has anyone spoken against Ibn Ishaq?’ He replied, ‘As for Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah, he used to say—referring to what he narrated from al-Zuhri—’