—the standing of ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd. He replied, “I do not think I have ever met anyone whose memory was sharper than his.”

I objected, “But was he not accused of holding to Jahm’s doctrine?”

He answered, “People do say that, yet he was not as they allege. The one who actually espoused Jahm’s position was his son, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, who served as the judge of Baghdad.”

He then added, “ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd transmitted roughly one thousand two hundred hadiths from Shuʿbah, and he had met the senior scholars. Even so, I kept my distance from him on account of that accusation—only to regret it later.” (1)

Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Ziyād al-Sūsī said: “I heard Abū Jaʿfar al-Nufaylī mention ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd and say, ‘It is not proper to record hadith from him,’ and he declared him markedly weak.” (2)

Abū Isḥāq al-Jawzajānī remarked, “ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd has fastened himself to a foreign innovation and has swerved from the truth.” (3)

Abū Yaḥyā al-Nāqid said: “I heard Abū Ghassān al-Dūrī (4) relate:

‘I was in the presence of ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd when the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar was cited:

“During the Prophet’s lifetime we used to rank people, saying: ‘The best of this community after the Prophet ﷺ are Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān,’ and when this reached the Prophet ﷺ he did not object.” (5)

ʿAlī commented, ‘Look at this youngster; he has not…’”