He was criticized for espousing irjāʾ (the Murjiʾite doctrine); had Ibn ʿAdī not recorded him in his al-Kāmil I would not have cited him.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ says in al-Taqrīb: “Trustworthy, but he makes mistakes.”

I say: A narrator of this stature is acceptable as evidence unless it becomes clear that he erred by contradicting someone more reliable, or the like. None of that applies here, so those contemporary writers who dismiss him outright have not been fair.

There is also another chain: Saʿīd ibn Kaʿb al-Murādī relates it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from Ibn Masʿūd, in a fuller wording:

“Singing makes hypocrisy grow in the heart just as water makes crops grow, whereas remembrance makes faith grow just as water makes herbs sprout.”

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded it, folio 4/2, and al-Bayhaqī transmitted it through his route, 10/223.

This chain is broken, for Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd—al-Nakhaʿī of Kūfah—did not meet Ibn Masʿūd, although he is reliable. I would not rule out his having taken it from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, since they belong to the same generation.

As for Saʿīd ibn Kaʿb al-Murādī, no one besides Ibn Ḥibbān (8/262) declared him trustworthy.

The first portion of the statement has also come down with the chain: “from a shaykh, from Abū Wāʾil, from Ibn Masʿūd,” traced back to the Prophet.