Al-Ḥākim said: Mūsā ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥanẓalī narrated to us; I heard Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Rāzī say, “I heard Abū Zurʿah state:

‘Al-Shadhakūnī forged seven ḥadiths and attributed them to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—even though he had never uttered them.’

Al-Nasāʾī said, “He is not reliable.” (1)

ʿAbbās al-ʿAnbarī remarked, “He shed knowledge the way a snake sheds its skin.” (2)

Ibn al-Madīnī related, “We were with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān when they brought al-Shadhakūnī in—he was drunk.”

Al-Bukhārī said, “In my estimation he is weaker than every other weak transmitter.” (3)

Yahyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Al-Shadhakūnī once told us, ‘Produce a single word of al-Ḥasan’s opinions that I do not have by heart.’” (4)

ʿAbd al-Bāqī ibn Qāniʿ reported that he heard Ismāʿīl ibn al-Faḍl say:

“I saw Ibn al-Shadhakūnī in a dream and asked him, ‘What has Allah done with you?’

He replied, ‘He has forgiven me.’

I asked, ‘For what reason?’

He said, ‘I was on the road to Isfahān when rain overtook me while I was carrying my books. With no roof over my head, I bent over my books until morning, and Allah forgave me for that.’” (5)

I (the author) say: His father was a merchant who sold the large muḍarrabāt cloths that, in Yemen, are called shādhakūnah, so the family came to be known by that name. (6)