Muslim al-Kajjī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Dharrāʿ, Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Iṣbahānī, and many others—the last of them being Abū Khalīfah al-Jumaḥī.

Abū Ḥātim said: “He is trustworthy (ṣadūq), except that in his later days he had to be prompted.” (1)

I say: That is, he would begin relating a ḥadīth, then pause and slip up; they would supply the wording for him and he would assent. Such a condition diminishes one’s standing in accurate retention, for it remains possible that what was fed back to him contained an extra phrase or a slight alteration—Allah knows best.

Abū Dāwūd said: He died on the eleventh of Rajab in the year 220 AH.

I add: His death occurred in the third decade of that century.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Faqīh informed us; ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad told us; Aḥmad ibn Mulūk (2) and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī both reported to us, saying:

Ṭāhir ibn ʿAbd Allāh the judge narrated to us; Abū Aḥmad al-Ghiṭrīfī (3) narrated to us; Abū Khalīfah narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn al-Haytham narrated to us; ʿAwf narrated to us, from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If knowledge were suspended among the stars of the Pleiades, men from the descendants of Persia would reach it.” (4)