and by al-Tirmidhī (1) and others—Abū Ja‘far al-Rāzī was judged weak by Ahmad and others. Ibn al-Madīnī said: “He used to confuse reports.” Abū Zur‘ah said: “He frequently made mistakes.” Ibn Hibbān said: “He was alone in transmitting (2) objectionable reports from well-known narrators.”
Our teacher, Abū al-‘Abbās Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah sanctify his soul—told me: This very chain of transmission is also the chain of the lengthy hadith of Ubayy ibn Ka‘b (3) concerning the verse, “And when your Lord took from the children of Adam” [al-A‘rāf: 172]. It includes the following: “The spirit of Jesus was among those spirits from whom the pledge and covenant were taken in the time of Adam. That spirit was sent to Mary when she withdrew from her family to an eastern place. Allah sent it in human form, and it appeared before her as a perfectly formed man.” He said: “She conceived the one who was speaking to her, and he entered through her mouth.”
This is an outright error. The one sent to her was none other than the angel who said to her: “I am only a messenger of your Lord, to grant you a pure son” (4) [Maryam: 19]. The one who addressed her with these words was not Jesus; that is impossible (5).
(1) I have not found it in al-Tirmidhī. Ahmad (12657) records it through ‘Abd al-Razzāq (4964), from Abū Ja‘far, with the same chain of transmission. Al-Dāraqutnī (1692–1694) and al-Bayhaqī (2:201) also record it through several routes from Abū Ja‘far with the same chain. The hadith’s transmission hinges on him, and there is some weakness in him, as the author will explain. For the assessments of the hadith authorities cited below, see Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (33:194–196) and Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (12:57).
(2) Sād, Jīm: “yatafarradu” (he alone transmits).
(3) Recorded by al-Hākim (2:323–324, 373), al-Bayhaqī in al-Qadā’ wa-l-Qadar (66), and al-Diyā’ al-Maqdisī in al-Mukhtāra (3:363–366). Ibn Kathīr says in his Tafsīr, commenting on Maryam 17: “This is exceedingly strange and objectionable, and appears to be of Israelite origin.”
(4) Kāf, ‘Ayn read “li-yahaba” (that He may grant), following the reading of Abū ‘Amr and Nāfi‘ as transmitted by Warsh. The other manuscripts have the reading adopted here, “li-ahaba” (that I may grant), following ‘Āsim and others among the seven Quran readers. See al-Iqnā‘ by Ibn al-Bādhish (2:696).
(5) The author discusses this hadith of Ubayy in his book al-Rūh (2:473–474), quoting assessments that consider Abū Ja‘far al-Rāzī reliable and others that judge him weak, but without mentioning his teacher. See also Ahkām Ahl al-Dhimma (2:1059).