Sharik said, “He was not a Jew; rather, he was a righteous man.”

Al-Mahdi retorted, “No—he was a heretic.”

Sharik replied, “A heretic is recognized by certain signs: abandoning the Friday congregational prayer, keeping company with singing girls, and drinking wine.”

Al-Mahdi swore, “By Allah, I will certainly kill you!”

Sharik answered, “May Allah afflict you with the shedding of my blood.”

Al-Mahdi ordered, “Remove him.” He was taken out, and the guards ripped his garments and tore his cap.

Naṣr said, “I called out to them, ‘This is Abū ʿAbd Allah!’”

Al-Mahdi responded, “Leave them.”

Ahmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ḥakīm reported: My father told us:

“Sharik would not sit to judge until he had eaten lunch and drunk four arṭāl of nabīdh (fermented drink). He would then pray two rakʿahs, take out a slip of parchment, look at it, and only afterwards summon the litigants.

When his son was asked about that parchment, he brought it out to us. Written on it was: ‘O Sharik! Remember the Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ) and how narrow and sharp it is. O Sharik! Remember the standing before Allah, Exalted is He.’”

Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān narrated from his father: “I noticed confusion in Sharik’s original notebooks.”

Abū Yaʿlā said: I heard Ibn Maʿīn say, “Sharik is reliable, except that he makes mistakes, lacks precision, and considers himself a peer of Sufyān and Shuʿbah.”

Al-Dāraqutnī stated, “Sharik is not strong in the reports that he alone transmits.”

38 – Ghassān ibn Burzīn, Abū al-Miqdām al-Ṭuhawī (Q), of Basra. Ibn Maʿīn and others declared him trustworthy.