So he went to him and said, “Abū Muʿāwiyah has narrated to me a ḥadith from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in which he said: ‘A people will arise after me who will be branded the Rāfiḍah; kill them, for they are polytheists.’ By Allah, if this report is authentic, I will certainly kill them.”
When I saw that, I became afraid and said, “Commander of the Faithful! If that is the case, they love you far more than the Umayyads ever did, and they are more inclined toward you.”
His distress then lifted, and he ordered that four (1) purses be given to me, which I accepted.
I say: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah is unknown.
Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj said: When Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd arrived, the session of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh was vacated for him. Abū Bakr said, “By Allah, tomorrow I shall bring out two of my men so that no one remains with Jarīr.” He then produced Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī and Abū Ḥuṣayn.
Al-Aḥmasī said: I have never seen anyone perform the prayer better than Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh.
Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād said: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh used to spit in the faces of the ḥadith students.
Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī undertook a careful study of Abū Bakr’s case and said, “I have not found a single objectionable ḥadith that a reliable transmitter reports from him.”
Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ṣaffār—and others—as well as Yaḥyā ibn Ādam and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: Abū Bakr died in Jumādā al-Ūlā, 193 AH.
I say: He lived ninety-six years.
Ibn Qawām and a group have informed us, saying: Ibn al-Zubaydī informed us; Abū al-Waqt informed us; al-Dāʾūdī informed us; Ibn Ḥammūyah informed us; al-Firabrī informed us; al-Bukhārī informed us; Yūsuf ibn Rāshid informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah informed us; Abū