He narrated ḥadīth from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, Ayman ibn Nābil, Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāʾah, ʿAmr ibn Abī Qays, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and a number of others.
Transmitters who reported from him include ʿAbd Allāh al-Musandī, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah, Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd, Yūsuf ibn Mūsā al-Qaṭṭān, and several others.
Ibn Maʿīn declared him reliable.
Abū Ḥātim said, “His narrations are not to be taken as evidence.”
Al-Bukhārī remarked, “He has objectionable reports.”
Al-Nasāʾī said, “Weak.”
Abū Zurʿah observed, “The people of Rayy are not inclined toward him because of some injustice they attribute to him.”
Ibn Maʿīn also said, “He leaned toward Shiʿism(1) and was a schoolteacher.”
Ibn Saʿd, however, judged him trustworthy.
It is said that he was among the most reverent of people in his prayer.
I (the author) say: he was strong in the reports concerning the military campaigns (maghāzī).
He died in 191 AH. Ibn al-Madīnī heard from him but subsequently abandoned his narrations.
= Al-Uqayli, al-Luwah, p. 167; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, vol. 4, p. 168; Ibn Hibban, Kitab al-Majruhin, vol. 1, p. 337; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, p. 529; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 2, p. 43 §1; al-Dhahabi, Mizan al-Iʿtidal, vol. 3, p. 192; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 307; al-Dhahabi, al-Kashif, vol. 1, p. 386; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 4, p. 153; Ibn Hajar, Khulasa Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 149; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 1, p. 328.
(1) Ibn Hajar states in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 1/94: In the language of the early scholars, tashayyuʿ (Shiʿism) is the belief that ʿAli is superior to ʿUthman, that ʿAli was in the right during his battles while his opponents were mistaken, yet still granting priority and preference to the first two caliphs. Some adherents even maintain that ʿAli is the most virtuous of mankind after the Messenger of Allah. If a narrator who holds such views is pious, devout, truthful, and a qualified jurist, his transmissions are not rejected on that basis—especially when he is not an active propagandist for his position.