to al-ʿUmari: “You have taken to the desert; if only you were beside the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

He replied, “I would find it distasteful to live next to someone like you; Allah has never seen your face show righteous indignation there for even an hour.”

I say: This is hyperbole intended for admonition. In truth, Mālik was among the scholars most outspoken in affirming the truth and among the quickest to show anger when confronted with wrongdoing.

As for al-ʿUmari, I know of no fault in him, and al-Nasāʾī considered him trustworthy.

Ahmad ibn Salāmah informed us in writing, from ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad; Abu ʿAlī the reciter informed us; Abu Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Sirīnī (1) narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Malik al-Juddī (2) narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿUmari narrated to us, from Abu Ṭuwālah, from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him):

from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said, “The zabāniyah—the stern angels of punishment—hasten toward the sinners among those who recite the Quran more swiftly than toward the idol-worshippers. They will protest, ‘Will we be taken before the idol-worshippers?’ It will be said to them, ‘He who possessed knowledge is not like one who did not.’” (3)

This report is singular and objectionable, and I do not know this Mūsā.

Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī said: al-ʿUmari died in 184 AH at the age of sixty-six—may Allah Most High have mercy on him.

112 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak ibn Wāḍiḥ al-Hanthali (ʿ)
The Imām, Shaykh al-Islām, the leading scholar of his era, and the commander of the devout in his time,