He snapped, “Silence, boy!” and Muslim offered him no support.

The young man went back to his father and complained to him about Dāwūd. His father asked, “Who else was there?”

“Muslim,” he replied, “and he did not defend me.”

“In that case,” his father said, “I retract every report I have ever related to him.”

When Muslim heard of this, he gathered everything he had written from him into a basket, sent it back, and declared, “I will never transmit from you again.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim said, “I recorded this story from Ṭāhir ibn Aḥmad, from Makkī. After this incident Muslim continued to attend Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā; he only broke off because of the affair involving al-Bukhārī. (1)

“The ḥadith-master Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Akhram knew the details best and reported on their final estrangement. I heard him say: ‘Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj openly held the doctrine of lafẓ—that one’s wording of the Qurʾān is created—and did not conceal it. When al-Bukhārī settled in Nishapur, Muslim visited him frequently. Then the dispute over lafẓ erupted between al-Bukhārī and al-Dhuhlī; al-Dhuhlī publicly denounced him and forbade the people to visit him until he was shunned and left Nishapur. Most people broke with him—except Muslim.

“‘When this reached Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā he announced one day, “Whoever espouses the lafẓ doctrine is not permitted to sit in our gathering.” Muslim thereupon lifted his cloak over his turban, rose before everyone, and later sent back to him all the ḥadith he had taken from him, piled on the back of a camel-driver. Muslim, he said, openly professed the lafẓ view and never hid it. (2)’

Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī relates: ‘I was present in Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā’s session when he declared, “Whoever says, ‘My wording of the Qurʾān is created,’ must not attend our assembly.” Muslim immediately stood up and left the gathering. (3)’