Abū Dāwūd relates from Aḥmad: “No one served as the ḥadith scholar of Egypt except Ibn Luhayʿah.”

Al-Bukhārī reports, through Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr: “The house of Ibn Luhayʿah—together with his books—burned down in the year 170 AH.”

The author says: It appears that only part of his original manuscripts was lost in that fire.

Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ declare, “Ibn Luhayʿah’s written material was reliable. He once brought out his books and dictated to the people until they wrote his ḥadith from dictation. Whoever recorded with precision, his ḥadith is good and sound. Yet those gatherings also included people who wrote carefully and well, others who wrote without controlling the text or revising it, some who merely looked on, and still others who listened along with the rest. After that, Ibn Luhayʿah never produced another book, and none of his books was thereafter seen. Anyone who wished to hear from him would first copy a manuscript from someone who had written from him, then come to him and read it back. Whoever happened upon an accurate copy, his transmission is sound; but whoever copied from an unrevised manuscript introduced many flaws.”

“Later, a group departed, and all who now transmit from him on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ should know: Ibn Luhayʿah did hear directly from ʿAṭāʾ, yet he also narrated from one man who heard from him, from another man reporting through yet another, and through three separate transmitters from ʿAṭāʾ. They omitted the intermediaries between him and ʿAṭāʾ and presented the reports as though they were directly from ʿAṭāʾ.” (1)

Yaʿqūb continued: “I copied a volume from Ibn Rumḥ, containing material from Ibn Luhayʿah that matched what Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ had just described. He said, ‘This reached someone who had accurately recorded Ibn Luhayʿah’s dictation.’

“I then asked him about Ibn Luhayʿah’s ḥadith. He replied, ‘You do not know my position on transmitters: I hold that the ḥadith of a narrator is not to be abandoned until the scholars of his own land unanimously agree to abandon it.’” (2)