Regarding his transmission of hadith, his entry in the works of al-jarḥ wa’l-taʿdīl (the science of narrator criticism and accreditation) is well-known, and the condemnation recorded there by the authorities of that discipline is famous (1).
Al-Bukhārī said in his book Khalq al-Afʿāl (2): “Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah al-Luʾluʾī (3) al-Anṣārī narrated to us; he said, ‘I heard Wakīʿ say: Do not take lightly their claim that the Qur’an is created, for it is among the worst of their assertions; their real objective is to abolish (all divine) attributes.’ (4)
Al-Bukhārī also reported (5): “Wakīʿ said: ‘The Rāfiḍah (6) are worse than the Qadariyyah; the Ḥarūriyyah are worse than both; and the Jahmiyyah are the worst of these groups. Allah, Exalted is He, says:
“And Allah spoke to Moses directly.” (7)
(1) In Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (vol. 9, p. 220), Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani reports Zakariya al-Saji’s statement: “As for Ibn al-Thalji, he was a liar who contrived ways to invalidate the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and rejected it to defend his own school.” Ibn ‘Adi adds that he fabricated hadiths concerning tashbīh (anthropomorphism) and ascribed them to accepted transmitters to discredit them. Al-Azdi similarly calls him “a liar from whom narration is impermissible due to his corrupt creed and deviation from the religion.” See the biographical note in my edition, p. 344.
(2) Khalaq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād, p. 37.
(3) In all the manuscripts the name appears as al-Lal; in Khalaq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād it is al-Sallal. The latter is correct. He is Abu Ja‘far Muḥammad ibn Qudāma al-Luʾluʾī al-Anṣārī al-Jawharī, who narrated from Ibn ‘Uyayna, Waki‘, and others; among his students were Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Mukharrimī and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā. He died in 237 AH. See Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-al-Ta‘dīl, vol. 4, pt. 1, p. 66; and Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 9, pp. 410–411.
(4) In Khalaq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād the reading is wa-innamā (“and verily”).
(5) Khalaq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād (al-Bukhārī), pp. 39–40.
(6) In Khalaq Af‘āl al-‘Ibād the term used is al-Rāfiḍiyya (the Rejectionist group).
(7) Sura an-Nisā’, 4:164.