He was born sometime after 270 AH.
He heard ḥadīth from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Būshanjī, from Ibn Khuzayma, from a number of other teachers in his own region, from al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān in Naysā, and from Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Ṣūfī in Baghdad, as well as others of that stratum.
He studied jurisprudence under Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Surayj, who was regarded as a ṣāḥib wajh (an authoritative jurist) in the Shāfiʿī school.
One of the strangest rulings he issued was his assertion that whoever repeats al-Fātiḥa twice invalidates his prayer, a position that clashes with the explicit text of the Imām.
He also maintained that ḥijāma (cupping) nullifies the fast of both the practitioner and the patient, insisting that this is the school’s view because the aḥādīth on the subject are sound.
This, however, is open to objection, for the Imām (1) did not declare those ḥadīths weak; rather, he held that they had been abrogated (2).
Al-Jinan 2:343; Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyya 3:226-229; Al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya 11:236; Tabaqat al-Huffaz 366; Shadharāt al-dhahab 2:380.
(1) That is, al-Shafiʿi.
(2) This is the correct position. Ibn Hazm, quoted by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-bari 4:155, says: “The hadith ‘The cupper and the one cupped have broken the fast’ is unquestionably authentic. Yet we possess the report of Abu Saʿid, ‘The Prophet granted a concession allowing cupping for the fasting person,’ whose chain is sound. A concession can only come after an initial strict ruling, which shows that the earlier view—that cupping invalidates the fast for both the cupper and the one cupped—was abrogated.”
Ibn Hajar adds: The cited report is transmitted by al-Nasaʾi, Ibn Khuzayma (no. 1967) and al-Daraqutni, p. 239; all its narrators are reliable, though it appears both as marfuʿ (attributed to the Prophet) and as mawquf (ending with the Companion). It has a corroborating version from Anas, recorded by al-Daraqutni, p. 239: “Cupping for a fasting person was first disapproved. Then Jaʿfar b. Abi Talib was cupped while fasting; the Messenger of Allah passed by and said, ‘These two have broken their fast.’ Later the Prophet granted a concession for cupping while fasting, and Anas himself was cupped when fasting.” All the transmitters are trustworthy and are found in al-Bukhari, yet the text is problematic because it locates the event at the time of the Conquest, while Jaʿfar had already been killed before that.
One of the soundest reports on the matter is that of ʿAbd al-Razzaq (no. 7535) and Abu Dawud (no. 2374), through ʿAbd al-Rahman b. ʿAbis from ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Abi Layla, from an unnamed Companion who said: “The Prophet forbade cupping for the fasting person and forbade continual fasting, but did not make either unlawful, out of consideration for his Companions.” The chain is sound, and the anonymity of the Companion is inconsequential. The phrase “out of consideration for his Companions”…