Abu Bakr al-Khatib said, “Al-Najjād was truthful and well-versed. He compiled al-Sunan (1). At the Manṣūr Mosque he held a circle before the Friday prayer for issuing legal opinions, and another circle after the prayer for dictation (2).

Al-Dāraquṭnī remarked, ‘Al-Najjād transmitted from someone else’s book material that was not found in his own master copies (3).’

Al-Khatib added, ‘He had gone blind, so it is likely that some people read that material aloud to him (4).’

Al-Najjād—may Allah Most High show him mercy—died in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of the year 348 AH.

In that same year there also died: the Sufi shaykh and hadith scholar Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Nuṣayr al-Khuldī in Baghdad; the Egyptian judge Abu Bakr ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Khuṣayb; the senior Kufan transmitter (musnid) Abu al-Hasan ʿAli ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Zubayr al-Qurashī; and Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Abyaḍ.

The jurist Abu al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm in Alexandria informed us; ʿAli ibn Mukhtār al-ʿĀbidī informed us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abu Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAli al-Ṭuraythīthī (5) informed us; ʿAli ibn Aḥmad al-Razzāz informed us; Abu Bakr al-Najjād narrated to us, saying:

“It was recited before Abu Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath while I was listening…”