Abu Mus-hir al-Ghassani, the senior authority of Damascus, said: “Al-Layth came to us and would sit with Saʿid ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz. Our companions approached him and read their material before him, yet I did not deem it proper to receive those transmissions in that fashion; I waited until I visited Malik.”
ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Shabbuyah reported: “I heard Saʿid ibn Abi Maryam say: I heard al-Layth ibn Saʿd declare, ‘I have reached eighty years of age and have never disputed with a follower of vain desire.’ ”
I say: In the time of al-Layth, Malik, and al-Awzaʿi, sectarian passions and innovations were dormant, and the Sunnah was evident and respected. In the era of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishaq, and Abu ʿUbayd, however, innovation became manifest; the imams of tradition were put to trial, and the people of desire raised their heads by gaining the support of the state. Consequently, the scholars were forced to debate them with proof from the Quran and the Sunnah. The matter then proliferated, and the scholars also met them with rational arguments. The disputations grew lengthy, the contention intensified, and doubts multiplied—may Allah grant us well-being.
Ibn Bukayr said: “I heard al-Layth say, ‘I heard al-Zuhri in Mecca in the year 113 AH, when I was twenty years old.’”
He added: “This hadith is sound (hasan), authentic (sahih) and, through this particular chain of al-Zuhri from Anas, singular (gharib); however, it is also reported from Anas through other chains.”
I say: It is recorded by al-Bukhari, 1/179–180 (Book of Knowledge); Muslim, no. 3 (Introduction); and Ahmad, 3/98, through several chains from Abd al-Aziz b. Suhayb, from Anas b. Malik, with the wording: “Whoever deliberately attributes a lie to me, let him take his seat in the Fire.” It is also found in Ahmad, 3/223, and Ibn Majah, no. 32, through al-Layth, from Ibn Shihab, from Anas; in Ahmad, 3/113, through Abu Muawiyah, from Asim al-Ahwal, from Anas; in Ahmad, 3/116–117, through Yahya and Ismail, from al-Taymi, from Anas; in Ahmad, 3/166–167, through al-Muʿtamir, from his father, from Anas; in Ahmad, 3/203, through Shuʿbah, from Hammad, from Anas; in Ahmad, 3/209, through Shuʿbah, from Hammad, together with Abd al-Aziz b. Rafiʿ, ʿItab the freedman of Ibn Huraymiz, and Rafiʿ, from Anas; in Ahmad, 3/278, through Shuʿbah, from Qatadah, Hammad b. Abi Sulayman, and Sulayman al-Taymi, from Anas; and in Ahmad, 3/280, through Hashim, from ʿIsa b. Tahman, from Anas.
The hadith is mutawatir: no fewer than seventy Companions transmitted it from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. For further documentation, see Mulla Ali al-Qari, al-Asrar al-marfuʿah, pp. 4 and 38.