Ashnas. He said: When he died, I was released (1).
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “Trustworthy, a man of the Sunnah.”
Al-Nasāʾī said, “He is not strong.” He also said, “Acceptable.”
Al-Sarrāj said, “He was one of the finest people in Baghdad” (2).
I read to Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Naḥwī, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad the jurist, and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad the ḥāfiẓ—ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar told you; ʿAbd al-Awwal ibn ʿĪsā informed us; Bībā bint ʿAbd al-Ṣamad informed us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Shurayḥ reported to us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Bazzār narrated to us; Shabābah narrated to us from Waraqāʾ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: I heard Anas say:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “People will continue asking questions until they finally say, ‘This is Allah, Who created everything …,’” and he mentioned another phrase.
Al-Bukhārī (3) recorded it through al-Bazzār, and we have matched his wording.
(1) The complete report is found in Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 7, p. 331.
(2) Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 7, p. 331; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 2, p. 290. Al-Nasa i, in Asma Shuyukh, says of him: “a trustworthy Baghdadi.” In Al-Kuna he notes: “he is not strong.” Ibn Hibban places him in Al-Thiqat. Imam Ahmad said to Ya qub al-Hashimi: “Write from him; he is reliable and follows the sunnah.”
(3) Al-Bukhari, vol. 13, pp. 230-231 (Kitab al-Iʿtisam, chapter “What is disliked regarding excessive questioning and probing matters that do not concern one”) records the wording: “People will not stop asking questions until they say, ‘Allah is the Creator of everything—so who created Allah?’” Muslim likewise relates it (no. 136, Kitab al-Iman, chapter “Clarifying that inner misgivings are part of faith and what one should say when they occur”) through al-Mukhtar b. Fulful, from Anas b. Malik: “Allah, Mighty and Exalted, said: ‘Your community will keep saying, ‘Why this? Why that?’ until they say, ‘Allah created the creation, so who created Allah?’” Al-Bukhari (vol. 6, p. 240, Kitab Badʾ al-Khalq) and Muslim (no. 214) also transmit the hadith of Abu Hurayra: “Satan comes to one of you and says, ‘Who created such-and-such?’ until he says, ‘Who created your Lord?’ When that happens, let him seek refuge in Allah and desist.” Another wording in Muslim states: “People will continue to question one another until someone says, ‘Allah created the creation, so who created Allah?’ Whoever experiences this should say, ‘I believe in Allah’”; it is likewise found in Abu Dawud (no. 4721). Ibn Hajar has gathered the scholars’ discussions of this hadith in Fath al-Bari, vol. 13, pp. 231-232; consult it.