that he be brought from Fasa to Shiraz. When he arrived, the vizier, aware of what had arisen in the Sultan’s mind, said, “O King! The man has come, and he does not speak against Abū Muḥammad ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, our shaykh”—by “our shaykh” he meant al-Sijzī—“rather, he speaks about ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, the Companion of the Prophet ﷺ.” When the Sultan heard this he said, “What concern have I with the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ? I had imagined he was criticizing ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān al-Sijzī!” and so he left him unharmed.
I say: This account is disconnected, and Allah knows best. I have only ever known Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī to follow the way of the salaf, and he even compiled a concise book on the Sunnah.
Abū Shaykh said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd ibn Ṣabīḥ say, “Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān died in Fasa in the year 277 AH, a month before Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī.”
Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿid (1) the judge informed us; al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad (2) al-Awqī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭuraythīthī (3) informed us; Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Durustawayh informed us; Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān informed us; Ḥātim al-Qazzāz informed us; Zanfal al-ʿArifī (4) narrated to us