96 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Nāfiʿ al-Ṣāʾigh * (M, 4)
One of the senior jurists of Medina.

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ was extravagant in praising him and placed him at the very beginning of his book al-Madārik, where he said (1):

“Sūḥnūn once sent for Muḥammad ibn Razīn when it reached him that the latter was narrating from ʿAbd Allah ibn Nāfiʿ. He asked, ‘Did you actually hear from Ibn Nāfiʿ?’ He replied, ‘May Allah set you right; it was the Zubayrī, not the Ṣāʾigh.’ Sūḥnūn retorted, ‘Then why did you conceal the truth?’ He then exclaimed, ‘What scorpions will crawl out after me!’”

Sūḥnūn thus considered it obligatory to differentiate between the two men—despite both being reliable imams—so that their reports would not be confused. Al-Ṣāʾigh is the older, earlier, and more firmly grounded in the transmissions of Mālik because of his long companionship with him. Mālik appointed him to take his seat after Ibn Kināna, and it is from him that Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā (2) and Sūḥnūn quote and transmit. Yet Sūḥnūn did not hear his complete recitation directly from him; rather, he received it from Ashhab, as we shall mention later.

His death occurred in the year 186 AH.

I say: This has been claimed regarding his date of death, but the sounder view is what we shall mention later.

He said (3): “The Zubayrī died in the year 216 AH; he was the teacher of Ibn …”