—from Shuʿbah’s own dictation (1).
ʿUthmān al-Dārimī likewise reported from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn the verdict: “Reliable” (2).
Ibn al-Madīnī, Abū Ḥātim, and others passed the same judgement (3).
Al-ʿIjlī said: “Abū al-Naḍr was one of the Abnaʾ (men of Persian descent in the Muslim army), trustworthy, committed to the Sunnah, and he lived in Baghdad.
The people of Baghdad used to pride themselves on him” (4).
Al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah, Muṭayyin, and others said that he died in 207 AH, and those who claimed he died in 205 AH were mistaken.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Tanūkhī and a group of scholars informed us, saying: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī informed us; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī informed us; ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Razzāz narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad al-Daggāq narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn al-Khalīl narrated to us; Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us; al-Masʿūdī narrated to us, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, who said:
“Thunder is an angel, and lightning are whips in the hands of the angels with which they drive the clouds.” (5)
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad informed us; ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad informed us; Ibn al-Ḥuṣayn informed us; Ibn Ghaylān informed us; Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbduwayh al-Khuzāʿī narrated to us; Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us; Abū Jaʿfar—