—Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj greeted him, sat for a while, and the two of them reviewed hadith together. When he left I said to Abū Zurʿah, “This man has gathered four thousand hadiths in his Sahih!”
He replied, “Then why did he leave the rest? The fellow has no sense. Had he shown a little tact toward Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā he would have become somebody.”

Saʿīd al-Bardhaʿī relates: “I was present when Abū Zurʿah mentioned Sahih Muslim and that al-Faḍl al-Ṣāʾigh had composed a work on its pattern. He said, ‘These men want to push themselves forward before their time; they have produced something to peddle around the market.’

“One day a man brought Abū Zurʿah Muslim’s book. He began to look through it and came upon a report narrated by Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr. ‘How far this is from being sound!’ he exclaimed. Then he saw a report from Qaṭn ibn Nusair and said to me, ‘And this is even worse.’ He looked again and said, ‘He even narrates from Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā,’ pointing to his tongue as though to say, ‘a liar.’

“Then he added, ‘He transmits from the likes of these while leaving Ibn ʿAjlān and his peers, thereby opening the way for the innovators against us, who will say, “Are not our ḥadith found in the Sahih?”’

“When I later went to Nishapur I told Muslim of Abū Zurʿah’s objection. He replied, ‘I only included from Asbāṭ, Qaṭn, and Aḥmad those reports that trustworthy authorities also transmitted. I received them from reliable sources with a lower isnād, while from these men I had them with a higher isnād, so I limited myself to their versions. Besides, the substance of the ḥadith is already well known.’

“Afterwards Muslim travelled to Rayy and met Ibn Wārah. I was informed that Ibn Wārah reproached him for the Sahih, kept his distance, and said something similar to Abū Zurʿah’s words: ‘This opens a door for the innovators against us.’ Muslim apologized, saying, ‘All I claimed is that these reports are sound; I never said that whatever I left out is weak. I merely selected these sound ḥadith so that they might be collected together for anyone who wishes to write them down.’ Ibn Wārah accepted his excuse and narrated to him.

“Makkī ibn ʿAbdān said: ‘Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī al-Iṣbahānī came to Nishapur in the days of Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh. A public session for debate was convened for him, attended by Yaḥyā ibn al-Dhuhlī and Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj. During the session a question arose in which Yaḥyā spoke, and Dāwūd rebuked him.’”