then migrated to him, but never caught up with him, for he reached Madinah only a few nights after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had passed away.

Yahya ibn Ma‘in—according to the report passed on from him by Mu‘awiyah ibn Salih—said: “Qays ibn Abi Hazim was more reliable than al-Zuhri.”

Indeed, the believers’ vision of Allah Most High in the Hereafter is conveyed from the Prophet ﷺ by tawātur (multiple independent chains). We therefore seek refuge in Allah from following whims or rejecting the text on the basis of personal opinion.

Abu Dawud said: “The soundest isnad among the Successors is that of Qays ibn Abi Hazim; he narrated from nine of the Ten Promised Paradise, and the only one from whom he did not narrate was ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn ‘Awf.”

Al-Khatib stated: “None of those who documented the ordeal ever mentioned that Ahmad was challenged over the hadith of the Vision.

“As for what is related about ʿAli—that he transmitted to Ibn Abi Dawud a hadith from al-Walid ibn Muslim concerning the Qur’an in which al-Walid erred in a single word—Ahmad used to reproach ʿAli for conveying that hadith.”

Al-Marwazi said: “I said to Abu ‘Abd Allah: ‘Ali ibn al-Madini has related from al-Walid the hadith of ʿUmar: ‘Leave it to the One who knows it,’ yet he rendered it: ‘…to its Creator.’”

He replied, “That is a lie.”

Then he added, “We have what we wrote down from al-Walid; it reads only: ‘So leave it to the One who knows it.’ (1)”

A wording different from this has also been reported from Ibn al-Madini.

Muhammad ibn Tahir ibn Abi al-Dumayk said: “Ibn al-Madini narrated to us, saying, ‘Al-Walid narrated to us…’”