, Ibn Saʿd, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Muktib, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAmrūs, ʿUbdūs ibn Aḥmad al-Thaqafī, and others.
Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad said, “I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan report that he had heard his father say:
‘I discussed with Abū Zurʿah a hadith transmitted by Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr, from Hammām, from Qatādah, from Anas, traced back to the Prophet: ‘Whoever is called to account will be punished.’ (1)
Abū Zurʿah remarked, ‘In our estimation Ibn ʿUbayd is an imām, and ʿAlī is one of the abdāl (the spiritual elect).’”
This chain is singular.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yazdād al-Khashshāb said, “Had Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd been in Baghdad, he would have resembled Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”
Abū Zurʿah likewise said, “Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd is reliable.”
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Muʾaddib stated that he died in 249 AH.
163 – al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah ibn Yazīd al-ʿAbdī * (T, Q)
The imām, traditionist, and trustworthy authority, the foremost transmitter of his era: Abū ʿAlī al-ʿAbdī, the Baghdadi teacher.
(1) Reported by al-Tirmidhi (no. 3338) in his Tafsir of the Qur’an, chapter on Surah al-Inshiqaq (“When the sky is split open”), through the chain: Muhammad ibn Ubayd al-Hamdani – Ali ibn Abi Bakr – Hammam – Qatadah – Anas. All the transmitters are trustworthy. A supporting narration from Aisha appears in al-Bukhari 1/176, Book of Knowledge, chapter “Whoever hears something and repeats it until he understands it,” and in Muslim (no. 2876), Book of Paradise, chapter “Affirmation of the Reckoning,” via Ibn Abi Mulaykah, from Aisha, who related that the Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever is called to account on the Day of Resurrection will be punished.” Aisha objected, “Has not Allah said, ‘He will receive an easy reckoning’ (84:8)?” He replied, “That is merely the presentation (al-ard); whoever’s account is scrutinised will be punished.” Here “scrutiny” (munaqasha) means exhaustive settlement: a meticulous reckoning leads to liability for punishment, for a servant’s good deeds are accepted only by divine mercy, and without that mercy there is no salvation. For biographical details on the narrators, see Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil 3/31–32; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad 7/394, 396; Ibn Abi Yaʿla, Tabaqat al-Hanabila.