Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Weak.”

Al-Bukhārī and others declared, “Soft in ḥadīth.”

Some critics added, “He narrates abundantly from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, and the notebook he kept from him is sound.”

ʿAbbās transmitted from Yaḥyā who said, “He is not strong.” (1)

Abū Ḥātim remarked, “There is leniency in him; he narrated from memory and made mistakes.”

Ibn Ḥibbān stated, “He errs frequently, among them the following report:

From ʿAṭāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

An Abyssinian came and asked the Prophet ﷺ, saying, ‘You have been favored over us in complexion, appearance, and prophethood. If I believe and do what you have done, will I be with you in Paradise?’

He replied, ‘Yes. Indeed, the whiteness of a Black man will be visible from a distance of a thousand years …,’ and he mentioned the rest of the ḥadīth. (2)

This was narrated from him by ʿAfīf ibn Sālim.

Ibn Ḥibbān judged it, “Baseless.”

Abū Dāwūd said, “Ayyūb ibn ʿUtbah possessed a reliable written collection.”

Abū Ḥātim added, “As for his notebooks, they are sound.”

Al-Nasāʾī commented, “His ḥadīth is inconsistent.”

I (the author) say: He also transmits, through Qays ibn Ṭalq, from his father, in a marfūʿ report: ‘A woman must not refuse herself, even on the camel saddle.’ (3)