so I began to look, whereupon Isḥāq shouted at me, “What are you looking at?”
I replied, “God forbid that we seize anyone except the one with whom we find our goods” (Yūsuf 12:75). He thereupon began to laugh—or at least to smile. (1)

Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Bardhaʿī said: We were with Abū Zurʿa al-Rāzī when two of our companions differed over Dāwūd al-Iṣbahānī and al-Muzanī. The two men were Faḍlak al-Rāzī and Ibn Khirāsh. Ibn Khirāsh said, “Dāwūd is a disbeliever,” while Faḍlak said, “Al-Muzanī is ignorant.”

Abū Zurʿa turned on them, rebuking both, and said, “Neither of you is a match for those two.”

Then he added, “Take this Dāwūd: had he limited himself to what scholars normally confine themselves to, I would have thought that, with the clarity of expression and the tools he possesses, he would have choked off the innovators. (2) But he exceeded the bounds. He came to us from Naysābūr, and Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, ʿAmr ibn Zurāra, Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr, and the elders of Naysābūr all wrote to me about what he had introduced there. I concealed that, fearing the consequences, and showed him none of it.

“Later he arrived in Baghdad, and there was cordiality between him and Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. He asked Ṣāliḥ to intercede with his father on his behalf for permission to visit him. So Ṣāliḥ came to his father and said, ‘A man has asked to come to you.’ He asked, ‘What is his name?’ He replied, ‘Dāwūd.’ He asked, ‘Where is he from?’ He said, ‘From Iṣbahān.’ Ṣāliḥ kept dodging any further identification, but Imām Aḥmad continued to probe until he realized who it was. He said, ‘This is the man about whom Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā wrote to me, claiming that he says the Quran is created. Let him not come near me.’

“Ṣāliḥ said, ‘Father, he repudiates that and denies ever saying it.’

“He replied, ‘Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā is more truthful than he is; do not grant him permission.’ (3)"