I hold that they should be summoned to repent; if they do so, well and good, but if they refuse, their necks are to be struck.
Ibn al-Madini said, “After Malik ibn Anas, it was ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi who adhered to the school of the Followers among the people of Medina and modeled himself on their way (1). He also said:
‘I examined the isnad and found that it originally revolved around six men; later their knowledge was transmitted to twelve individuals, and thereafter it came to rest with: Yahya ibn Saʿid, Yahya ibn Zakariyya ibn Abi Zaʾidah, Ibn al-Mubarak, Wakiʿ, ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, and Yahya ibn Adam (2).’”
ʿAli said, “The most reliable of Sufyan’s students are Yahya al-Qattan and ʿAbd al-Rahman.”
Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “ʿAbd al-Rahman is trustworthy—of excellent character, pious, thoroughly Muslim, one of the very sources of truthfulness.”
Ibn Mahdi said, “Abu al-Aswad, ʿUrwah’s orphan, was a brother of Hisham ibn ʿUrwah from…"
(1) Ali ibn al-Madini, al-ʿIlal, p. 51.
(2) The report appears in al-ʿIlal, pp. 17 and 40, in full; the author has given only a very brief résumé. For clarity it is reproduced here, slightly adapted: “On examination I found that the isnad (chain of transmission) revolves around six men. For the scholars of Madinah: Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri (d. 124 AH); for those of Mecca: ʿAmr ibn Dinar (d. 126 AH); for Basra: Qatadah ibn Diʿamah al-Dawsi (d. 117 AH) and Yahya ibn Abi Kathir (d. 132 AH); for Kufa: Abu Ishaq al-Sabiʿi (d. 127 AH) and Sulayman ibn Mihran al-Aʿmash (d. 148 AH). Their learning then passed to the early compilers. From Madinah: Malik ibn Anas and Muhammad ibn Ishaq; from Mecca: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-Aziz ibn Jurayj and Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah; from Basra: Saʿid ibn Abi ʿArubah, Abu ʿAwanah al-Waddah ibn Khalid, Shuʿbah ibn al-Hajjaj, and Maʿmar ibn Rashid; from Kufa: Sufyan ibn Saʿid al-Thawri; from Syria: ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Awzaʿi; from Wasit: Hushaym ibn Bashir. The knowledge of these three Basrans, together with that of the twelve just named, was finally gathered by six scholars: Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan, Yahya ibn Zakariyya ibn Abi Zaidah, and Wakiʿ ibn al-Jarrah. It then reached three leading authorities: ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, and Yahya ibn Adam."