I say: Whoever studies this Imām’s writings will immediately perceive his scholarly standing and the breadth of his learning.
He once acted as deputy judge for Abū ʿUbayd Allah Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdah (1), the qāḍī of Egypt, in a year somewhere in the 270s AH.
His rank continued to rise. It is related that a respected man attended a session before the judge Ibn ʿAbdah and asked, “What did Abū ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd transmit from his mother, from his father?”
I (2) replied: “Bakkār ibn Qutaybah narrated to us; Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī narrated to us; Sufyān narrated to us—from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Thaʿlabī, from Abū ʿUbaydah, from his mother, from his father—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Indeed Allah is protective on behalf of the believer, so let him show protective jealousy.’ (3)
“Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Dāwūd also narrated it to us: Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ, from his father, from Sufyān—as a non-prophetic report (mawqūf).”
The man then said to me, “Do you realise what you are saying and the field you are speaking in?”
I asked, “What is the matter?”
He said, “I saw you this evening among the jurists in their arena, and now I see you in the arena of the hadith scholars. Few indeed combine the two.”
I replied, “That is through Allah’s favour and His bounty.”
(1) Shuayb states: This testimony by the great Muslim historian al-Dhahabi and other leading scholars in favour of Imam al-Tahawi shows that the epithets and attacks set out by Ahmad Saqr in the introduction to Maʿrifat al-Sunan wa-l-Athar spring solely from fanaticism, spite and ignorance. This is not the place to reproduce everything he wrote about the Imam, to expose its weakness, analyse its flaws or rebut his fabrications. Since he was editing a work on the Prophetic sunnah, he ought to have followed the example of the authorities of al-jarh wa-l-taʿdil (the science of accrediting and discrediting transmitters), noted for their precision, careful scrutiny, truthfulness and fairness when pronouncing on scholars.
(2) That is, al-Tahawi.
(3) All the transmitters are reliable, except that Abu Ahmad al-Zubayri—whose name is Muhammad b. ʿAbd Allah b. al-Zubayr—makes mistakes when transmitting the hadith of al-Thawri. Al-Bukhari (9/280, Book of Marriage, chapter “Jealousy”), Muslim (no. 2760, Book of Repentance, chapter “Allah’s Jealousy”), al-Tirmidhi (no. 3530) and Ahmad (1/381, 425, 436) narrate through Abu Waʾil Shaqiq b. Salama from ʿAbd Allah b. Masʿud that the Messenger of Allah said: “No one is more protective than Allah; for that reason He has forbidden indecency.” On the same topic there are reports from Abu Hurayra in al-Bukhari (9/281), Muslim (no. 2761) and al-Tirmidhi (no. 1168); from Asmaʾ in al-Bukhari (9/280) and Muslim (no. 2762); and from al-Mughira b. Shuʿba in al-Bukhari (12/154) and Muslim (no. 1499).