—so they cast him aside for that reason; yet, despite this, he remains indispensable for the literature on the Prophet’s military campaigns, the events of the Companions, and their chronicles.
Those who transmitted from him include: Muḥammad ibn Saʿd—his scribe—; Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah; Abū Ḥassān al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUthmān al-Ziyādī; Muḥammad ibn Shujāʿ al-Thaljī; Sulaymān ibn Dāwud al-Shādhakūnī; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Azdī; Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd ibn Nāṣih; Abū Bakr al-Ṣāghānī; al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah; Muḥammad ibn al-Faraj al-Azraq; Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd al-Faḥḥām; Aḥmad ibn al-Khalīl al-Burjalānī; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Hāshimī; and many others.
Al-Athram said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal state, “We kept on defending al-Wāqidī’s case until he narrated—from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from Nabḥān, from Umm Salama—that the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Are you two blind?’ (1). At that point he had produced something indefensible, for this is the ḥadith of Yūnus; no one other than he relates it from al-Zuhrī.”
(1) Abu Dawud transmitted it (no. 4112) in the Book of Clothing, chapter: “The saying of Allah Most High, ‘And tell the believing women to lower their gaze…’.” Al-Tirmidhi recorded it (no. 2778) in the Book of Conduct, chapter: “Women veiling themselves from men,” and Ahmad (6/296) through several chains from Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak—-from Yunus ibn Yazid—-from al-Zuhri, who said: Nibhan, the freedman of Umm Salama, related to me from Umm Salama: “I was with the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and Maymuna was present. Ibn Umm Maktum came in after the command regarding hijab had been revealed. The Prophet said, ‘Screen yourselves from him.’ We said, ‘Messenger of Allah, is he not blind? He neither sees nor recognizes us.’ He replied, ‘Are you two also blind? Do you not see him?’”
Al-Tirmidhi deemed the hadith “good and sound” (hasan sahih), even though no one besides Ibn Hibban declared Nibhan reliable—and Ibn Hibban is known for accrediting unknown narrators. Al-Tirmidhi himself is considered lenient in judging reports, so his verdict is not decisive when contrary evidence emerges. The author of al-Mizan (4/416) therefore says: “Do not be misled by al-Tirmidhi’s grading; upon close scrutiny most of those reports are weak.” He also states (3/407): “For this reason scholars do not rely on al-Tirmidhi’s authentication.” It is likewise surprising that Ibn Hajar strengthens this hadith in Fath al-Bari (9/294) following Ibn Hibban’s approach, even though he himself remarks in Lisan al-Mizan (1/14): “It is a strange methodology, and the majority disagree with it.” Among those who declared this report weak are …