Sulaymān ibn Isḥāq al-Jallāb, together with another narrator, reported that some people asked Ibrāhīm al-Harbī, “Was Ibn al-Madīnī ever suspected (of tampering with ḥadīth)?”
He replied, “No. The only issue was that whenever he related a ḥadīth he would insert a single word into the report so as to gratify Ibn Abī Duwād.”
They then said to him, “Did he speak against Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal?”
He answered, “No. It was only that if he spotted in a manuscript a ḥadīth transmitted from Aḥmad he would say, ‘Cross that out,’ in order to please Ibn Abī Duwād.”
Yet Ibn al-Madīnī had actually heard ḥadīth from Aḥmad, and his own notebooks contained the phrases, “I heard Aḥmad,” “Aḥmad said,” and “Aḥmad narrated to us.”

For his part, whenever Ibn Abī Duwād found in a book a ḥadīth traceable to al-Aṣmaʿī he would say, “Cross that out,” thereby appeasing himself.

Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Junayd recounted: “I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn. When ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī was mentioned in his presence, the people began to attack him. I said, ‘In the eyes of the public he is regarded as nothing but an apostate.’ Yaḥyā replied, ‘He is no apostate; he is still a Muslim. The man was frightened, so he spoke as he did.’ (1)

Ibn ʿAmmār al-Mawṣilī relates in his Chronicle: ‘ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī once said to me, “What keeps you from pronouncing takfīr on the Jahmiyya when at first I myself did not declare them disbelievers?” When ʿAlī later yielded to the inquisition (mihna), I wrote to remind him of his own words and to admonish him by Allah. A man informed me that he wept on reading my letter. I met him afterwards and he said, “Nothing of what you mentioned lingers in my heart; I only conceded one point because I feared I would be killed. You know how weak I am—if I were struck with a single lash I would die,” or words to that effect.
‘ʿAlī then shielded me from Ibn Abī Duwād’s interrogation, interceded for me, and protected more than one of the people of Mosul on my account. Thus he did not comply out of religious conviction but out of fear.’

ʿAlī ibn Salama al-Naysābūrī said: ‘I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Walīd say: “I took leave of ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and he said, ‘Convey to our companions from me that these people are unbelievers, astray,’ …”’