al-Warrāq: “Bring the sheet and inkwell and come.” So I took the sheet and inkwell, and we went to him. He brought out Abū Sallām’s book for us. We asked, “Did you hear this from Abū Sallām?” He replied, “No.” We asked, “Then from someone who heard it from Abū Sallām?” He replied, “No.” We said to him, “Do you narrate hadiths like these without having heard them from the man himself or from anyone who heard them from him?” He replied, “Do you think that a man who came with a sheet and an inkwell would write down hadiths like these, falsely attributing them to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace?”’ Such is the substance of the account.

Abū Bakr said, “Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj recorded this account from me.”

I say: Imam Ahmad had also mentioned this discrepancy earlier. Abū Bakr al-Athram related in his Book of Hadith Defects: “I asked