Abu Hatim ibn Hibban said: “He was one of those who would relate muʿdal reports—chains from reliable transmitters in which two consecutive links are missing—and he claimed teachers whom he had never met. He also said, ‘Ibn Mahdi thought well of him’ (1).

I remark: This is Qutaybah’s narration from Ibn Mahdi, yet more than one person has reported from Ibn Mahdi that he actually charged him with fabrication.

Ibn Hibban further stated: Muhammad ibn ʿAmr al-Suwayqi said, “I was present with ʿUmar ibn Harun in Baghdad while he was narrating to the people. He was asked about a hadith of Ibn Jurayj that al-Thawri alone transmitted from him with no corroboration. When ʿUmar recited it, I saw them tear up their notebooks in protest.”

Ibn Hibban then added: “He was a man of Sunnah, virtue, and generosity. The people of his town hated him for his staunch partisanship for the Sunnah and his vigorous defense of it. Even so, his position in hadith is as I have described, and the objectionable material found in his narrations confirms the judgment that Yahya ibn Maʿin passed on him. A group of our own shaykhs spoke well of him because each year he would send them substantial gifts of dirhams and garments, dispatching them from Balkh to Baghdad.”

He also transmitted—through al-Awzaʿi, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Qatadah, from his father—this report:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to select a place for relieving himself just as one of you selects a place for his prayer.” (2)

I add: Among those who bolstered his standing was Ibn Khuzaymah, for in his Mukhtasar he narrated a hadith from him concerning the basmalah (3).