and he replied: “I keep my distance from this shaykh; it is as though his reports are fabricated. In my view he is not Zuhayr ibn Muḥammad. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal also considered this shaykh weak and used to say, ‘He is a shaykh whose name has probably been reversed.’ (1)
He said this immediately after relating the ḥadith: ‘Ibn ʿUmar prayed with his buttons undone and said, “I saw the Prophet of Allah ﷺ do that.”’
28 – al-Qāsim ibn Maʿn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Hudhalī * (D, S)
A grandson of the Prophet’s Companion ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd, an eminent imam, jurist, and independent scholar, judge of Kūfah and its mufti in his day. He was Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Hudhalī al-Masʿūdī al-Kūfī, the brother of the imam Abū ʿUbaydah ibn Maʿn.
He was born shortly after 100 AH.
He narrated from Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, and a host of others.
Among those who transmitted from him are ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Abū Nuʿaym, Muʿallā ibn Manṣūr, Abū Ghassān al-Nahdī, al-Muʿāfā ibn Sulaymān, and ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Walīd al-ʿAdanī,
(1) Al-Tirmidhi likewise transmits Ahmad’s assessment in his Sunan after the hadith of Jabir (no. 3291) in the commentary on Surat al-Rahman, adding—after the words “they have distorted his name”—that the man is avoided because he reports objectionable traditions.
The narration stating that “Ibn Umar prayed with his shirt unbuttoned” is recorded by Ibn Khuzaymah (no. 779) and by al-Bayhaqi, Sunan, 2/240, through the chain: Safwan b. Salih al-Dimashqi → al-Walid b. Muslim → Zuhayr b. Muhammad al-Tamimi → Zayd b. Aslam, who said: “I saw Ibn Umar pray with his buttons undone; when I asked him about it, he replied, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah do it.’”
Al-Bayhaqi notes that Zuhayr b. Muhammad is the sole transmitter of this report. He then cites the previously mentioned statement of al-Tirmidhi and adds: “Al-Bukhari hinted at part of this in the Tarikh, and versions of the report from Ibn Umar exist without an isnad.”
References: Tabaqat Khalifah, 168; Mashahir Ulama al-Amsar, 169; al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 7/120; Tahdhib al-Kamal, 1118; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 3/152/2; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, 314; Shadharat al-Dhahab, 1/286; al-Ibar, 1/286; al-Jawahir al-Mudiyyah, 1/42.