—by Allah). ⦗1⦘
68 – Aḥmad ibn Bashīr, Abū Bakr al-Kūfī (cited by al-Bukhārī and al-Tirmidhī)
The traditionist and scholar Abū Bakr al-Kūfī, a mawlā (client) of ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth al-Makhzūmī.
Some say he was a client of the tribe of Hamdān.
He narrated in Baghdad from: al-Aʿmash, Ibn Abī Khālid, Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, Mujālid, Shabīb ibn Bishr, Hāshim ibn Hāshim, Misʿar, and many others.
Transmitters from him include: Isḥāq ibn Mūsā, Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, Ibn ʿArafah, Salm ibn Junādah, Ibn Numayr, and others.
Ibn Maʿīn said: “He used to ascertain matters carefully, and there is nothing objectionable in his ḥadith.” ⦗2⦘
Al-Khaṭīb said: “He is described as truthful.”
Ibn Numayr said: “He was reliable (ṣadūq), well-versed in the chronicle of people’s days, and good—”
(1) ʿAbd al-Wahhab is reliable, and the change that affected him three years before his death does no harm, for his family prevented him from transmitting during that period. All the other transmitters in the chain are trustworthy as well. Al-Bukhari cited the report through several chains, from Abu ʿUthman al-Nahdi—whose name is ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Mull—from Abu Musa al-Ashʿari: Ṣahih al-Bukhari 11/159 in the Book of Supplications, chapters “Supplication when climbing a rise” and “The formula la ḥawla wa-la quwwata illa billah,” and again in the Book of Divine Decree, chapter “La ḥawla wa-la quwwata illa billah.” Muslim (no. 2704) records it in the Book of Remembrance and Supplication, chapter “The recommendation to lower one’s voice in dhikr.” Abu Dawud (1526, 1527, 1528) includes it in the Book of Prayer, chapter “Seeking forgiveness,” and al-Tirmidhi (3457) in the Book of Supplications, chapter “The merits of tasbih, takbir and tahlil.”
(*) Main biographical sources: Ibn Maʿin, Tarikh, p. 19; Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, 6/396; al-Bukhari, Tarikh al-Kabir, 2/1; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 2/42; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 4/46; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, vol. 18; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 1/18/1; al-Dhahabi, Mizan al-Iʿtidal, 1/85; al-Dhahabi, al-Kashif, 1/53; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 1/18; Ibn Hajar, Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 4.
(2) Tarikh Ibn Maʿin, p. 19. The term yaqīn comes from taqyīn (embellishment): it may mean that he groomed men, i.e., arranged their hair, or that he was the instructor of the qiyān (singing girls), training and disciplining them.