in the year 229 AH. (1)

I (the author) say: Nuʿaym was one of the great repositories of knowledge, yet the heart does not feel at ease with his narrations.

Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī (2) said: I said to Duḥaym,

“Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād related to us, from ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, from Ḥarīz ibn ʿUthmān, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr, from his father, from ʿAwf ibn Mālik, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

‘My community will split into a few-and-seventy sects; the greatest trial for my community will be a people who measure matters by their own opinion, thereby declaring the unlawful to be lawful and the lawful to be unlawful.’ (3)”

He replied, “This is the ḥadith of Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr—the ḥadith of Muʿāwiyah.”

Abū Zurʿah continued: I mentioned Nuʿaym’s version of this report to Ibn Maʿīn and he rejected it.
I asked, “Where did the error come from?”
He said, “It was confused for him. (4)”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥamzah said: I asked Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn about this, and he replied, “It has no sound basis, and Nuʿaym is reliable.”
I said, “How can a trustworthy transmitter relate something baseless?”
He answered, “It was confused for him. (5)”

Al-Khaṭīb remarked: Supporting Nuʿaym in it are ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar al-Raqqī and Suwayd ibn Saʿīd, and it is also transmitted from ʿAmr ibn ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus—all of them from ʿĪsā. (6)