He said, “I repeated my prayers for forty years, during which I used to drink nabidh in accordance with the view of the Kufans.” (1)

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Fahm remarked, “I have never seen anyone more distinguished than Khalaf ibn Hisham. He would first admit the people of the Qur’an, then give permission to the hadith scholars, and he would read to us fifty hadiths from the collection of Abu ʿAwanah.” (2)

It is also related of Khalaf that he practiced uninterrupted fasting; perhaps the prohibition had not reached him, or he interpreted the hadith differently.

Al-Muʾammal ibn Muhammad and others narrated to us, saying: Abu al-Yumn al-Kindī informed us; Abu Mansur al-Qazzaz informed us; Abu Bakr al-Khatib informed us; Abu al-Husayn ibn Bishran informed us; ʿUthman ibn Muhammad informed us; Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Abi Hassan al-Anmati narrated to us; and Ahmad ibn Ibrahim—the scribe of Khalaf ibn Hisham—related:

He heard Khalaf say, “When I arrived in Kufa, I went to Sulaym ibn ʿIsa. He asked me, ‘What has brought you here?’ I replied, ‘I wish to recite to Abu Bakr ibn ʿAyyash.’ He said, ‘You do not intend to see him?’ I answered, ‘Indeed, I do.’ He then called his son and wrote a note to Abu Bakr—what he wrote I did not know—and we made our way to Abu Bakr’s house.

Ibn Abi Hassan adds: Khalaf was nineteen years old. When Abu Bakr read the letter, he said, ‘Bring the young man in.’ I entered, offered the greeting of peace, and he looked me up and down before asking, ‘Are you Khalaf?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Did you leave no one in Baghdad who recites better than you?’ I kept silent. He then said, ‘Sit down—come, recite.’ I asked, ‘To you?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘No, by Allah, I will not recite to a man who belittles one of the bearers of the Qur’an.’

I left. He sent word to Sulaym, asking him to bring me back, but I refused. Later I regretted it and found myself in need, so I copied the reading of ʿAsim from