Among the reports for which he alone is the source is the ḥadith on the qunūt (1).
Ibn Ḥibbān said: “He was originally from Marw, then moved to Rayy; he was one of those who single-handedly transmit objectionable reports from renowned authorities.”
I say: He died around the year 160 AH.
ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad—along with a group—told me, saying: ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad informed us; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū Muḥammad ibn Hazārmard informed us; Ibn Ḥabābah narrated to us; Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī narrated to us; ʿAlī narrated to us; Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī informed us, from ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Nujūd, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “For one of you to have his belly filled with pus is better for him than to have it filled with poetry.” (2)
(1) Reported by Ahmad, 3/162; al-Daraqutni, 2/239; al-Tahawi, p. 143; al-Hakim in his book al-Arbaʿin, and through him by al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan, 2/101 – all with the chain: Abu Jaʿfar → al-Rabiʿ ibn Anas → Anas ibn Malik, who said: “The Messenger of Allah continued to recite the qunut in the dawn (*subh*) prayer until he passed away.” The isnad is weak because Abu Jaʿfar al-Razi is unreliable and he alone transmits it. It also conflicts with the sound reports showing that the Prophet performed qunut only on specific occasions of calamity (*nawazil*).
(2) Its chain is weak for the same reason (the presence of Abu Jaʿfar al-Razi), yet the hadith itself is authentic, for it is firmly established through other routes from al-Aʿmash → Abu Salih → Abu Hurayra. See: al-Bukhari, 10/453, Book of Manners, “Chapter: It is disliked that poetry dominate a person until it turns him away from the remembrance of Allah, knowledge and the Quran”; Muslim, no. 2257, at the beginning of the Book of Poetry; al-Bukhari, al-Adab al-Mufrad, no. 860; Abu Dawud, no. 5009; al-Tirmidhi, no. 2851; Ibn Majah, no. 3957; al-Tahawi, 2/370; Ahmad, 2/288, 355, 391, 478, 480. Similar reports come from Ibn ʿUmar (al-Bukhari, 10/453; al-Adab al-Mufrad, no. 870; Ahmad, 2/39, 223; al-Darimi, 2/297); from Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas (Muslim, no. 2258; Ahmad, 1/175, 181; Ibn Majah, no. 3760; al-Tirmidhi, no. 2852); and from Abu Saʿid al-Khudri (Muslim, no. 2259; Ahmad, 3/8, 41).
Imam al-Nawawi explains that the censure concerns a person who devotes himself so completely to poetry that it distracts him from the Quran and the remembrance of Allah. Al-Qurtubi adds that one who is dominated by poetry will, by literary convention, acquire blameworthy traits; the hadith is to be understood in that sense. Some have claimed that the reproof applies only to satirical poetry aimed at the Prophet or others, but this is refuted: satirizing the Prophet is disbelief, whatever the amount, and satirizing others is forbidden even if slight, so restricting the blame to “much” poetry would be meaningless. Abu ʿUbayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam had already stated this view.