—“It is well known, well known; one should not speak it.”

Abū Zurʿah said, “They pressed him hard so that I might see him, but I never did.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālikāʾī said: “I found in the book of Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Ḥanẓalī—among the things he heard from him—the following words: ‘Our doctrine and our choice is to follow the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his Companions, and the Successors; to hold fast to the approaches of the people of tradition, such as al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and Abū ʿUbayd; and to cling to the Book and the Sunnah. We believe that Allah is above His Throne—“Nothing is like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (al-Shūrā 11); that faith increases and decreases; that there is punishment in the grave, the Pond, the questioning in the grave, and intercession; and we ask Allah’s mercy for all the Companions….’ He mentioned other points as well.

When Abū Ḥātim declares a man reliable, hold to his verdict, for he only declares reliable someone whose hadith is sound. But if he considers a man weak, or says of him, ‘He is not to be used as proof,’ then pause until you have seen what others have said about him. If someone else vouches for him, do not base your ruling on Abū Ḥātim’s criticism alone, for he was exceptionally exacting with transmitters (1); indeed, he said about a group of narrators found in the Sahih collections, ‘He is no proof,’ ‘He is not strong,’ and the like.

The last person to transmit from him was Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā al-Rāzī; he lived beyond the year 351 AH.

Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Muʾayyad (2) informed us; Zayd ibn Yaḥyā ibn Hibah informed us