54 – Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ ibn Malīḥ al-Ruʾāsī * (T, Q)
The ḥāfiẓ (hadith master), son of another ḥāfiẓ, the hadith scholar of Kūfa, Abū Muḥammad al-Ruʾāsī, al-Kūfī.
He was counted among the storehouses of knowledge, though a certain softness (weakness) later overtook him.
He transmitted from his father,
and from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb, Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar, Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth and their peers, narrating copiously.
Those who reported from him include al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, Muḥammad ibn Jarīr, Abū ʿArūbah, Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid, Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Bāshānī, and many others.
Al-Bukhārī said: “They spoke critically of him because of certain material that had been coached to him.” ⦗1⦘
Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī said: “One should not busy oneself with him; he was under suspicion.” ⦗2⦘
Ibn Abī Ḥātim related: “My father advised him to replace his copyist, for the man had corrupted his hadith, and told him, ‘Do not narrate except from your own primary manuscripts.’ He replied, ‘I will do so.’ Yet he persisted and went on to relate hadiths that had been inserted into his collection.” ⦗3⦘
Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān said: “Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ was an upright, truthful shaykh, but he was tested with a bad copyist who slipped hadiths into his work, and Sufyān had confidence in him,