Jahm abandoned the prayer for forty days (1) out of sheer doubt. Then one of the Samanīyah argued with him, which only deepened his uncertainty, so he spent another forty days without praying. Ḍumrah added: and Ibn Shawdhab actually saw him in that state.
Al-Bukhari (2) also said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salamah (3) declared, “Jahm’s discourse is merely a description (4) without substance—an edifice with no foundation—and he has never, at any time, been counted among the scholars.”
Abu Dāwūd (5)—and al-Khallāl (6)—reported from Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān (7), who said:
“Whenever I mention him, or he is mentioned in my presence, I invoke Allah’s curse upon him. How great is the harm (8) that this grandiloquent speech of his has brought upon the People of the Qiblah!”—meaning Jahm.
(1) The word “yoman” (a day) is omitted in S.
(2) Khalaq Af‘al al-ʿIbad, p. 32; it is also cited by al-Dhahabi in Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, vol. 7, p. 312.
(3) In S: “Muslimah”, a scribal error. He is Abu Abdallah ʿAbd al-Aziz ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Sulaymah al-Majshun al-Tamimi, the family’s freedman and a jurist of al-Madinah. He served as imam and mufti; Ibn Saʿd described him as “reliable”. He died in 164 AH. See al-Tabaqat al-Kubra, vol. 7, p. 323; al-Jarh wa al-Taʿdil, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 386; Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, vol. 7, pp. 309-312.
(4) In Khalaq Afʿal al-ʿIbad: “sanʿah” (work). This reading is confirmed by Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, vol. 7, p. 312.
(5) It is recorded by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani in Masaʾil al-Imam Ahmad, p. 269, where he states: “Abu Bakr told us; Abu Dawud told us; Ahmad ibn Hafs ibn Abdallah told us; my father told me; Ibrahim ibn Tahman said: … I do not recall the rest.”
(6) The material enclosed in quotation marks is an addition found in S and T.
(7) He is Abu Saʿid Ibrahim ibn Tahman al-Harawi, later of Nishapur, a scholar of Khurasan. He was reliable, vehemently opposed to the Jahmiyya, resided in Mecca in his later years, and died in 163 AH. See Tarikh Baghdad, vol. 6, pp. 105-111; al-Jamʿ bayn Rijal al-Sahihayn, vol. 1, p. 16; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, vol. 1, p. 213.
(8) In S: “waritha” (he inherited).