He went on: “I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿĀṣim say:
‘I bear witness before Allah Most High that Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Manda declared:
“I bear witness before Allah that Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd said:
‘Al-Zuhrī narrated from ʿUrwah that he said: “So-and-so’s fingernails were worn down from how often he would climb over the wives of the Prophet ﷺ.” (1)’ ”’

I say: This is outright falsehood and manifest slander. Where is its chain back to al-Zuhrī? Even if it existed, the report would still be mursal, and the word of an enemy against his enemy is inadmissible. I do not believe that such a statement ever came from ʿUrwah in the first place. If Ibn Abī Dāwūd actually related this, then he was light-minded indeed; only a handspan stood between him and the sword for uttering such calumny. Yet the chief of Isfahān, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥafṣ al-Hamdānī al-Dhakwānī, rose in his defence, supported him, and rescued him from Abū Laylā, the governor of Isfahān. Some of the ʿAlids had volunteered to prosecute him, attributing the statement to Abū Bakr and producing witnesses against him: the ḥadith scholar Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Manda, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Akhram, and Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Jārūd. The matter became grave and Abū Laylā ordered his execution. At that, al-Dhakwānī sprang forward and discredited the witnesses—eminent though they were—accusing Ibn Manda of filial impiety, charging Aḥmad with consuming usury, and speaking against the third. Al-Hamdānī al-Dhakwānī was a man of great influence; he took Abū Bakr by the hand and led him away from death. For the rest of his life Abū Bakr prayed for him and invoked curses upon those witnesses.

Abū Nuʿaym, the ḥadith master, related this story and then said: “His supplication concerning them was answered: one of them was burned, and another became deranged and lost his mind.”

Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Azraq said: “I heard Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd say: ‘Everyone is pardoned by me except the one who accuses me of hating ʿAlī—may Allah honor his face.’ (2)”