We seek Allah’s protection from the loss of sound reason. Even if we were to grant, purely for argument’s sake, that such a thing happened in some bygone age, who actually saw it? Whose report can we trust when he claims that the man is still alive? And who has established for us his alleged infallibility, or that he possesses knowledge of everything? This is manifest delusion. Should such fantasies be unleashed upon the mind, it goes astray and confounded, and will end up conceding every falsehood. May Allah guard us and you from arguing on the basis of impossibilities and lies, or from rejecting authentic truth—the very habit of the Imāmīs.

Among those who affirmed that al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī left no progeny are Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī and Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid; their learning and reliability need no further endorsement.

61 – Yūsuf ibn Baḥr, Abū al-Qāsim al-Tamīmī *
An eminent imam and inveterate traveler—originally from Baghdad, later of Ṭarābulus—he served as qāḍī of Homs before settling in Jableh.

He received hadith from ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Abū al-Naḍr, Ḥajjāj ibn Muḥammad, al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir, and Marwān ibn Muḥammad.

Narrators from him include Ibn Ṣāʿid, Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyab al-Arghiyānī, Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān—the brother of Khaythama—, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and many others.

He transmitted a considerable body of reports. Khaythama relates that he travelled to meet him shortly after the year 270 AH in Jableh, whereupon the Franks took him captive.

Ibn ʿAdī said, “He is not strong; he traced some reports back to the Prophet and narrated from trustworthy transmitters what is objectionable.” (1)