gracious in his approach to hadith is a liar.”

It was asked, “In what way is he to be gracious?”
He answered, “Whenever he doubts a report he has narrated, he abandons it.”

Jaʿfar ibn Abī ʿUthmān said: We were in the company of Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn when a man who was in a hurry arrived and said, “Abū Zakariyyā, relate something to me so that I may remember you by it.”
Yaḥyā replied, “Remember me for having asked me to narrate to you and for my refusing to do so.”

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Fahm related: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn say, “I was in Egypt and saw a slave-girl sold for one thousand dinars. I have never seen anyone lovelier—may Allah bless her!”
I said, “Abū Zakariyyā, is it proper for someone like you to say such a thing?”
He answered, “Yes indeed—may Allah bless her and every beautiful person.”
This story is to be understood as a jest from Abū Zakariyyā, and it is also transmitted from him through another chain.

Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Baradhʿī said: I heard the ḥāfiẓ Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī say, “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal held that one should not write hadith from Abū Naṣr al-Tammār, nor from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, nor from anyone who was subjected to the Inquisition and complied.”

I say: This view is excessively narrow. There is no blame on the one who answered under duress during the ordeal—indeed, not even on one who was coerced into explicit words of disbelief—in light of the verse, “except for one who is compelled while his heart is secure in faith” (Q 16:106). This is the correct position.

Yaḥyā—may Allah have mercy on him—was among the leading Imams of the Sunnah. He feared the power of the state and answered only as a protective measure.

ʿAbbās al-Dūrī said: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn say, “Whenever I came home at night, I would recite Āyat al-Kursī over my house and family five times. While I was reciting one night, something spoke to me: ‘How many times will you repeat this—as though no one but you can recite it properly!’ I replied, ‘Does this annoy you? By Allah, I shall only increase.’ After that I would recite it fifty, even sixty times each night.”

ʿAbbās also said: I asked Yaḥyā, “What do you say about a man who corrects another man’s hadith for him?”