Al-Khaṭṭābī said, “That is what he said—or words to that effect.”

Al-Musallam ibn ʿAllān informed me; al-Kindī informed us; al-Shaybānī informed us; Abu Bakr al-Khaṭīb transmitted to us; and Ibn Rizq, Abu al-Faraj Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan all reported:

Aḥmad ibn Kāmil the judge related to us; Abu al-ʿAynāʾ narrated:

“I came to ʿAbd Allah ibn Dāwūd, who asked, ‘What brings you here?’

‘I seek hadith,’ I replied.

He said, ‘Go and memorize the Quran.’

‘I have already memorized the Quran,’ I said.

He responded, ‘Then recite: “And recite to them the story of Noah …” (Yunus 10:71).’

I recited the first ten verses to the end, whereupon he said, ‘Now go and study the laws of inheritance (farāʾiḍ).’

I answered, ‘I have already learned the rules concerning the direct heirs, the grandfather, and the senior kin (1).’

He asked, ‘Which of the two is nearer to you: your nephew or your uncle?’

‘My nephew,’ I said.

‘And why is that?’

‘Because my brother is related through my father, whereas my uncle is related through my grandfather.’

He said, ‘Go now and learn Arabic.’

I replied, ‘I mastered it before those two disciplines.’

He continued, ‘Then tell me: why did ʿUmar—when he was stabbed—cry out, “Yā lillāh! Yā lil-muslimīn!”? Why did he place a fatḥa on the first lām and a kasra on the second?’

I answered, ‘He opened the first lām because it was a supplication, and he broke the second because it was a plea for help and support.’

ʿAbd Allah ibn Dāwūd concluded, ‘If I were to narrate to anyone, I would narrate to you.’ (2)

This is the wording preserved by Abu al-Faraj.

Abu Naṣr ibn Mākūlā said, ‘Al-Khuraybī was difficult to approach for narration.’ (3)

The compiler remarks: ‘Al-Bukhārī met him but did not hear directly from him. When he needed his reports for the Ṣaḥīḥ, he transmitted them through Musaddad from him, through al-Fallas from him, and through Naṣr ibn ʿAlī from him. Al-Khuraybī abandoned public narration out of scrupulous piety when he perceived that people were seeking it with tainted intentions.

Al-Khuraybī said, “I was born in 126 AH.”’