al-Asfātī, from Sulaymān ibn Harb, who said that he heard Hammād ibn Zayd say that he heard Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī mention the Mu‘tazilah and say:

“All the Mu‘tazilah are seeking is to say that there is nothing in heaven.”

Hammād ibn Zayd was the preeminent imam in the time of Mālik, al-Thawrī and al-Layth. He used to say that he was the most knowledgeable of people concerning the hadith included in the Sunnah. He was a companion of Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, about whom