Among those who transmitted ḥadīth from him were al-Ḥākim, Ibn Manda, Abū Ṭāhir ibn Maḥmish, the judge Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ḥayrī, Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Sahlī al-Ṣaffār, and several others.

Al-Ḥākim said, “Abū al-Walīd composed al-Mustakhraj ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and wrote al-Aḥkām according to the Shāfiʿī school (1).”

Abū Saʿd al-Adīb related: “I asked Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī, ‘Whom shall we consult after you?’ He replied, ‘Abū al-Walīd’ (2).”

Al-Ḥākim also said: “I heard the master Abū al-Walīd say: ‘My father asked me, “What are you collecting?” I answered, “An extraction based on the book of al-Bukhārī.” He said, “Stay with the book of Muslim, for it is more blessed; al-Bukhārī was accused of the doctrine of lafẓ (that the spoken wording of the Qur’an is created) (3).”’

Muḥammad ibn al-Dhuhlī added, “Muslim too was accused of lafẓ. Do you not see how he rose before the whole assembly and left al-Dhuhlī’s gathering when the latter declared, ‘Whoever agrees with the view of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl, let him not come near us’?”

This question is problematic. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and others held that one should avoid delving into it, and al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—never stated it explicitly; he never said, “Our utterances of the Qur’an are created.”

Rather, he said, “Our actions are created, but the recited, spoken text is the speech of Allah, exalted is He, and is not created.” Remaining silent and avoiding expansive terminology is safer for a person.