Al-Fasawī (1) added: Ibn al-Madīnī was asked about the aforementioned narration and replied, “It is nothing; what is intended is the report of Yazīd ibn al-Asamm.”
Al-Rāmahurmuzī said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Abān, the tailor from Rāmahurmuz, related to me; al-Qāsim ibn Naṣr al-Mukharramī related to us; Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Minqarī related to us, saying:
“The Caliph al-Maʾmūn sent al-Anṣārī fifty thousand dirhams to distribute among the jurists of Basra. Hilāl ibn Muslim would speak on behalf of his faction, while I”—al-Anṣārī—“spoke for mine. Hilāl said, ‘It belongs to us,’ and I responded, ‘No, it is for me and my companions.’
“We differed, so I said to Hilāl, ‘How do you recite the tashahhud (testification in the prayer)?’ He retorted, ‘Is someone like me to be asked about the tashahhud?’ He then recited it according to the ḥadith of Ibn Masʿūd. I asked, ‘Who transmitted that to you, and on what authority do you deem it established?’ Hilāl was left speechless and offered no reply. I said, ‘You pray every day and repeat these words, yet you do not know who conveyed them from your Prophet? May Allah distance you from true fiqh.’ Al-Anṣārī then distributed the money among his own companions (2).”
Clarification of this account: al-Minqarī is a weak transmitter.
Al-Anṣārī had studied jurisprudence under ʿUthmān al-Battī, Sawwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-ʿAnbarī. He served as judge of Basra in the time of Hārūn al-Rashīd, succeeding Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh. Later he came to Baghdad, held the judgeship there, and then returned.
According to Ibn Qutaybah (3), al-Rashīd appointed him judge over the eastern quarter after al-ʿAwfī. When al-Amīn succeeded to power he dismissed him and put him in charge of the maẓālim court after Ibn ʿUlayyah.