“Do you intend to read it aloud to the shaykh?”
He replied, “He—meaning Asad ibn Mūsā—has already authorised me to use his books.”

So I went to Asad and said, “You will not allow us to read to you, yet you authorise someone else?”
He said, “I do not consider this form of reading acceptable, so how could I issue an authorisation?”
I informed him of what had been claimed, and he answered, “All he did was borrow my books so he could copy from them; that is no concern of mine (1).”

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said in his History: “Ibn Ḥabīb was the first to propagate hadith in al-Andalus, but he did not grasp its transmission lines, he corrupted names, and he adduced objectionable reports. Consequently, the people of his day accused him of lying and would not accept him.”

Among those who declared Ibn Ḥabīb weak was Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm. There is no doubt that he was a ṣuḥufī—one who relied on written sheets without proper audition—but as for deliberate fabrication, certainly not.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Barr also said: “There was estrangement between him and Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā. He opposed him frequently. After meeting Aṣbagh in Egypt and narrating copiously from him, he would challenge Yaḥyā whenever an issue arose and reject his view, which distressed Yaḥyā.”

He continued: “Once the judge gathered them in the congregational mosque and asked them about a certain question. Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā and Saʿīd ibn Ḥassān issued a fatwa on it by way of transmission, but ʿAbd al-Malik dissented and cited, in disagreement with them, a report from Aṣbagh. At that time ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Wahb was a young man who had performed the pilgrimage and met Aṣbagh. Aḥmad ibn Khālid narrated to us, from Ibn Waḍḍāḥ, from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, who said:

“I entered upon Saʿīd ibn Ḥassān, and he asked, ‘What do you say about such-and-such—the issue we discussed? Does Aṣbagh mention anything concerning it?’
“I said, ‘Yes. He states regarding it such-and-such,’ and I mentioned that this agreed with the position of Saʿīd and Yaḥyā.
“Saʿīd said to me, ‘Be careful what you say—are you certain of it?’
“I said, ‘Yes.’
“He said, ‘Then bring me your book.’”