Sahl ibn ʿAmmār said, “I was with Muʿallā ibn Manṣūr, together with Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥarb al-Naysābūrī, during the days when people were debating the Qur’an. Ibrāhīm ibn Muqātil al-Marwazī came in and informed Muʿallā that the people were discussing him. Muʿallā asked, ‘What are they saying?’ He answered, ‘They are saying that you claim the Qur’an is created.’ Muʿallā replied, ‘I never said that, and whoever says that the Qur’an is created is, in my judgment, a disbeliever.’ (1)

I say: Muʿallā was a man devoted to the Sunnah and to following it, free from Jahmism.

Ibn Saʿd and Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr said: He died in the year 211 AH. (2)

I also say: All six canonical compilers narrated from him.

Abū Dāwūd stated in his Sunan: “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal would not transmit from Muʿallā because he engaged in raʾy (personal reasoning), whereas Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and others considered him reliable.”

As for ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim, he erred without doubt when he reported from his father that it was said to Aḥmad, ‘Why did you not write hadith from Muʿallā?’ and he replied, ‘He used to lie.’ The correct view is the one we have already presented. (3)

Among the reports in which Muʿallā ibn Manṣūr stands alone in the chain—though not in the wording—is the one recorded for him by Abū Dāwūd, (4)