a righteous man; someone like him is aided in reaching the truth. (1)
Al-Ḥasan, his son, said: “I never saw my father jesting at all, nor laughing except with a gentle smile. (2)”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal also said: “May Allah preserve him; seldom will you see anyone like him. (3)”
I say: He enjoyed great standing and was among Imām Aḥmad’s close companions.
He died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 251 AH.
124 – Abū Nashīṭ Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rabaʿī al-Marwazī *
The imām, master reciter, precisionist, ḥadīth memorizer, and trustworthy authority; Abū Nashīṭ—also known as Abū Jaʿfar—al-Rabaʿī al-Marwazī, later al-Baghdādī al-Ḥarbī.
He was born in a year slightly after 180 AH.
He recited the Qur’an to ʿĪsā ibn Mīnā according to Nāfiʿ’s reading (4), and he heard ḥadīth from Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bakr, Abū al-Mughīrah ʿAbd al-Quddūs al-Ḥimṣī, ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh, Abū al-Yamān, and ʿAmr ibn—