(Q 5:64).
His constant refrain (1) throughout the night—whenever I visited him toward the end of his last return from Iraq—was the verse, “If Allah helps you, none can overcome you; but if He forsakes you, who then can help you after Him?” (Q 3:160).
Ahmad ibn Mansur al-Shirazi said: I heard al-Qasim ibn al-Qasim say: I heard Ibrahim, the scribe of Ahmad ibn Sayyar, relate that when al-Bukhari arrived in Marw, Ahmad ibn Sayyar was among those who went out to welcome him. Ahmad said to him, “Abu ‘Abd Allah, we ourselves do not disagree with what you say, but the masses will not be able to bear it from you.”
Al-Bukhari replied, “I fear the Fire; if I am asked about something I know with certainty, I cannot say anything else.”
Ahmad ibn Sayyar thereupon left him.
‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim stated in al-Jarh wa-l-Ta‘dil (2): “Muhammad ibn Isma‘il came to Rayy in the year 250 AH. My father and Abu Zur‘a both heard from him, but they abandoned his narrations after Muhammad ibn Yahya wrote to them that he had openly declared in Nishapur that his pronunciation of the Quran is created.” (3)
(1) That is, his habitual speech, constant practice, and regular concern. In the hadith of Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—“He had no hajira other than it,” meaning an unremitting habit, a settled routine, something he was continually engaged in.
(2) Al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, vol. 7, p. 191.
(3) It is remarkable that Abu Zurʿa and Abu Hatim, after having declared Muslim reliable and praised him, should censure him even though he held the same view as his teacher al-Bukhari on the issue of the wording (lafz) of the Quran. This stance can only be explained by partisanship, personal desire, or envy.
Al-Dhahabi states in Mizan al-Iʿtidal, 1/111, in the biography of Abu Nuʿaym, author of al-Hilya: “The criticism that contemporaries level against one another carries no weight, especially when it is prompted by enmity, doctrinal disagreement, or jealousy. Only those whom Allah protects are spared this, and I know of no era whose people were free of it except the prophets and the most truthful believers. If I wished, I could fill volumes with examples.”
Al-Subki writes in Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyyah, 2/230: “Al-Dhuhli’s stance toward al-Bukhari arose from his envy of him.”
Al-Subki also observes in Qaʿidat al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, p. 12: “One must consider the doctrinal positions of both the critic and the person criticized, for a critic may denounce someone solely because they differ in creed.”