—through al-Haytham ibn Khalaf al-Duri—that Muḥammad ibn Suwayd al-Ṭaḥḥān related to him, saying:

“We were with ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, together with Abū ʿUbayd, Ibrāhīm ibn Abī al-Layth, and a group of others, while Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was being flogged. ʿĀṣim kept repeating, ‘Is there not a man who will stand with me so that we might go to this man and speak to him?’ Yet no one answered him.

Then Ibn Abī al-Layth said, ‘I will stand with you, Abū al-Ḥusayn.’

ʿĀṣim replied, ‘Boy, my footwear!’

Ibn Abī al-Layth said, ‘Abū al-Ḥusayn, allow me to reach my daughters so that I may give them my last instructions.’

We thought he had gone off to have his shroud and embalming perfume prepared, but he soon returned and said, ‘I went to them, and they wept.’

A letter also arrived from ʿĀṣim’s two daughters in Wāsiṭ: ‘Our father, news has reached us that this man has seized Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and beaten him in order to compel him to say, “The Qur’an is created.” So fear Allah and do not comply with him. By Allah, for the news of your death to reach us is dearer to us than that news should come that you have agreed.’ (1)

I say: Ibn ʿAdī mentioned three hadiths in which ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī was the sole transmitter from Shuʿbah. He then said, ‘I know of nothing objectionable from him apart from these, and I have found nothing blameworthy in his narrations.’ (2)

They said that ʿĀṣim died in Rajab of the year 221 AH. Abū Dāwūd heard only a few hadiths from him, and ʿĀṣim passed away.

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad informed us in 616 AH; Abū al-Fatḥ ibn al-Baṭṭī informed us; Abū al-Faḍl ibn Khayrūn informed us; and Ismāʿīl likewise informed us; Ibn Qudāmah informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Thābit informed us; my father informed us; they said:

‘Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Burqānī informed us; he said: Abū Bakr…’