ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said in the Musnad: Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn related, “ʿAbd al-Razzāq said to me, ‘Write down a single hadith from me without consulting the book.’ I replied, ‘No—not even one letter.’

Ibn Abī Khaythamah reported: Ibn Maʿīn told us that ʿAbd al-Razzāq said to him in Mecca, before I travelled on to Yemen to see him, ‘Young man, what do you want with all these hadiths? We have heard them and collated them, and every one of them rests on an audition!’ He also said to me, ‘These notebooks were copied out for me by the professional scribes; we heard the material together with my father.’ (1)

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad and ʿAbbās—this wording is his—narrated: Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn told us, ‘Abū Jaʿfar al-Suwaydī said to me: “They came to ʿAbd al-Razzāq with some hadiths they had written out which were not among his transmissions and said, ‘Read them to us.’ He replied, ‘I do not recognise them.’ They said, ‘Read them to us, and do not say in them, “So-and-so narrated to us.”’ So he read them out to them.”’ (2)

Hanbal said: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh speak about the hadith of Abū Hurayrah which ʿAbd al-Razzāq had related—“al-nār jabbār” (“The Fire is overpowering”) (3)—and he said, ‘It is not to be found in the books; it is spurious.’ Al-Athram transmitted this from Aḥmad and added:
‘Then he said, “Who narrates it from ʿAbd al-Razzāq?” I answered, “Aḥmad ibn Shabbūyah narrated it to us.” He said, “Those people heard from him after he had gone blind; he was being prompted.”’