anything in it proves defective, the fault lies with the copyist; Sulaymān himself is trustworthy.

Ṣāliḥ Jazrah said, “There is nothing wrong with him, but he does narrate from weak transmitters.”

Al-Nasāʾī said, “He is truthful.”

Ibn Ḥibbān remarked, “His reports are to be considered sound when he transmits from reliable authorities; but when he narrates from unknowns, they contain anomalous material.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “I asked al-Dāraqutnī, ‘What about Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān?’ He replied, ‘Trustworthy.’ I said, ‘Does he not have some anomalous reports?’ He answered, ‘He narrated those on the authority of weak transmitters; as for him himself, he is reliable.’ ”

Abū Zurʿah al-Naṣrī also listed him among the scholars qualified to issue fatwas in Damascus and said, “Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is the jurist of the people of Damascus.”

The ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad ibn Jawṣā said: “I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jawzajānī say, ‘We were staying with Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān of Damascus; he did not admit anyone for three days. When at last we entered and asked him for more narrations, he said, ‘News has reached me that this youth from Rayy—meaning Abū Zurʿah—has arrived, so I have reviewed 300,000 hadiths in preparation for meeting him.’ ”

I say: In himself he is truthful, but he was enamoured of transmitting rarities from unknown and weak narrators.

In Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī’s collection there is, through him, the hadith about the supplication for preserving the Qurʾān (1). He relates it from al-Walīd ibn Muslim, who said, “Ibn Jurayj told us …,” and the report is virtually fabricated (2).