Section
The ḥuffāẓ—the master scholars of hadith—deemed unsound whatever Sufyān b. Ḥusayn transmitted on his own, and they likewise faulted the reports in which someone else followed him.

As for the first category, Ibn ʿAdī says in al-Kāmil (1):

“I heard Abū Yaʿlā say: It was said to Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn, ‘What about the hadith of Sufyān b. Ḥusayn, from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father, dealing with the duties of almsgiving?’ He replied, ‘No one has corroborated Sufyān in that; it is not authentic.’”

Ibn ʿAdī continues: “In this narration—from Sālim, from his father—Sufyān b. Ḥusayn is matched by Sulaymān b. Kathīr, the brother of Muḥammad b. Kathīr. Yet a number of transmitters reported it from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father, stopping the chain there, while only Sufyān b. Ḥusayn and Sulaymān b. Kathīr (2) carried it up to the Prophet ﷺ.”

Al-Bayhaqī states in al-Sunan (3): “As for the hadith which Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Khāliq the muʾadhdhin transmitted to us—related to us by Muḥammad b. al-Muʾammal; al-Faḍl b. Muḥammad told us; (4) al-Nufaylī informed us; ʿAbbād b. al-ʿAwwām narrated from Sufyān b. Ḥusayn, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ—that he