I said: This story demonstrates Abū al-Qāsim’s careful verification and piety; for had he wished to cut corners—and, by way of tadlīs, reported it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, his teacher—who would have stopped him?!

Then al-Naqqāsh said: “I noticed in him a sense of humility and distress, and he was trustworthy.”

I add: The wording of the ḥadīth is: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade two people from conversing privately to the exclusion of a third when all three are together.” (1)

Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj also transmitted it: “Ibrāhīm ibn Hāniʾ informed us,” and he mentioned the ḥadīth.

Al-Ardabīlī said: Ibn Abī Ḥātim was asked about Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī—“Does he qualify for inclusion among the authentic narrators?” He replied, “Yes.”

Hamzah al-Sahmī reported: I asked Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbdān about al-Baghawī, and he said, “There is no doubt that he is counted among those whose reports are ṣaḥīḥ.”

With this same chain, Abū Bakr said: Ḥamzah ibn Muḥammad al-Daqqāq narrated to us: I heard al-Dāraqutnī say,

“Abū al-Qāsim ibn Manīʿ seldom spoke about a ḥadīth, but when he did, his words were like a nail driven into seasoned wood.”

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: I asked al-Dāraqutnī about al-Baghawī, and he replied, “Trustworthy, a mountain, an imām among the imāms, firmly grounded, the least of the shaykhs in error, and his words on…"