146 – Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muhallil al-Saʿdī* (M, S, Q)

The eminent imam, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī, from Kufa.

He narrated ḥadith from Mansūr, Bayān ibn Bishr, Mughīrah, al-Aʿmash and others of comparable rank.

Those who transmitted from him include Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī, Abū Usāmah, Yaḥyā ibn Ādam, al-Ḥasan ibn al-Rabīʿ and many more.

Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said, “He was trustworthy, firmly grounded, a man of Sunnah, merit and fiqh.”

When Sufyān al-Thawrī died, his students came to al-Mufaḍḍal and asked, “Will you sit for us in place of Abū ʿAbd Allāh?” He replied, “I never considered your companion’s gathering worthy of praise.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq mentioned him, saying, “That monk came to us together with Sufyān.”

He was declared reliable by Abū Ḥātim and a group of other scholars.

Ibn Manjawayh stated that he died in 167 AH.

We have transmitted from al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Muhallil this useful maxim: “Put a small portion of hadith into practice and it will make you indifferent to amassing a great deal of it.”

147 – Al-Mahdī Muḥammad ibn al-Manṣūr **

The caliph, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad, son of al-Manṣūr Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad—