Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym said, “He was a jurist who followed the Ẓāhirī school (1).”
Yet this requires reconsideration, for he authored a work refuting Dāwūd al-Ẓāhirī, collecting forty rigorously authenticated reports that Dāwūd had declared unsound.
His daughter ʿĀtika related, “My father was born in Shawwāl, 206 AH. I heard him say, ‘I did not begin writing down hadith until I was seventeen years old. I had been devoted to worship while still a boy, and a man once asked me about a hadith that I could not recall. He said to me, “Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim, and you do not memorise hadith?!” So I sought my father’s permission; when he granted it, I set out on my travels.’”
I comment: He could easily have memorised a few reports from his grandfather Abū ʿĀṣim.
His mother was Asmāʾ, daughter of the ḥadith master Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tabūdhakī. He heard from his grandfather al-Tabūdhakī as well as from his own father, who died in Ḥimṣ while serving as its judge in 242 AH, at a little over sixty years of age.
He and his brother ʿUthmān ibn ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿĀṣim were among the senior scholars.
Ibn ʿAbdkuwayh said, “I heard ʿĀtika bint Aḥmad say: I heard my father report, ‘My brother ʿUthmān had just received his appointment as judge over Sāmarrāʾ. He exclaimed, “Shall I sit before Allah the Exalted as a judge?!” His gall-bladder then ruptured, and he died.’”
Ibn ʿAbdkuwayh also said, “ʿĀtika informed us: I heard my father say, ‘I set out from Kūfa for Mecca; I ate one meal in Kūfa and the next in Mecca.’”
I add: Its chain of transmission is sound.
Abū Shaykh said, “I heard my son ʿAbd al-Razzāq relate from Abū ʿAbd Allāh …”