495—Al-Firyābī also informed us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Abd al-Rahīm narrated to me, saying: Affān ibn Muslim narrated to us, saying: Harb ibn Surayj, Abū Sufyān al-Bazzāz, narrated to me, saying: I asked Abū Jafar Muhammad ibn Alī, whereupon he asked, “Are you Syrian?” They told him, “He is your client.” He said, “Welcome,” and set down a leather cushion for me.

I said, “Some of them say, ‘There is no divine decree.’ Others say, ‘Allah decreed good but did not decree evil.’ Still others say, ‘Nothing will come to pass, and nothing has ever happened, except that the Pen has recorded it.’”

He said, “I have been told that there are imams in your region ⦗906⦘ who lead the people in prayer and espouse the first two views. Whoever among them you find leading the people in prayer, do not pray behind him.” He then fell silent for a short while before saying, “When any of them dies, do not perform the funeral prayer over him. May Allah destroy them! They are the brothers of the Jews.”

I said, “I have already prayed behind them.” He replied, “Whoever has prayed behind those people must repeat the prayer.”