about what he had narrated to me.
Ibn ʿUyaynah then said, “They accused him of being a Qadarite.”
Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi transmitted—from Hammad ibn Salamah (1)—who said, “I never reported from Ibn Ishaq except when compelled.”
Al-Fallas said: I heard Yahya say that a man once asked Ibn Ishaq, “How is the hadith of Shurahbil ibn Saʿd?” He replied, “Does anyone narrate from Shurahbil?”
Al-Fallas added, “It is astonishing that a man would quote the People of the Book yet turn away from Shurahbil, even though Yahya ibn Saʿid, ʿAsim al-Ahwal, Matar, and Abu Maʿshar al-Madani all narrated from him.”
Al-Fallas also said: I heard Yahya ibn Saʿid ask ʿUbayd Allah, “Where are you going?” He answered, “To Wahb ibn Jarir to copy the Sira.” Yahya replied, “He writes a great deal of falsehood.”
I say: Wahb related it from his father, from Ibn Ishaq. Yahya al-Qattan was referring to the weak poetry and some disconnected, objectionable reports found in the Sira; were those removed, the work would be sound. Moreover, there are many authentic hadiths in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections and the musnads dealing with the Prophet’s biography and military campaigns that ought to be added and arranged, and Imam Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi has done most of that in his Dalaʾil al-Nubuwwa.
ʿAli ibn ʿAbd Allah said: Yahya ibn Saʿid would not transmit anything from Ibn Ishaq, for he regarded him as weak.
Yahya ibn Maʿin said: Ibn Ishaq did not hear anything from Talhah ibn Nafiʿ.
Ibn al-Madini said: I heard Yahya relate that a man told al-Aʿmash, “Ibn Ishaq has narrated to us from Ibn al-Aswad, from his father, such-and-such.” Al-Aʿmash replied, “Ibn Ishaq has lied and Ibn al-Aswad has lied; ʿUmara narrated to me such-and-such.”