Among the notables who passed away that year were:
• Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ.
• ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal.
• And—according to some reports—ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd the Qadarī.
He is ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd ibn Bāb (1); it is also said: ibn Kaysān al-Tamīmī, a client of that tribe, Abū ʿUthmān al-Baṣrī, of Persian lineage, and the leading teacher of the Qadariyya and the Muʿtazila. He related hadith from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Anas, and Abū Qilābah. Narrating from him were the two Ḥammāds, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, al-Aʿmash—who was his contemporary—ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn Saʿīd, Hārūn ibn Mūsā, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, and Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ.
Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (2) said, “He is not someone from whom hadith should be taken.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “He is nothing.” Ibn Maʿīn added, “He was a wicked man, one of the dahrīs who used to say, ‘People are no more than crops’ (3).”
Al-Fallās said, “Abandoned—an innovator. Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān used to report to us from him and then left him. Ibn Mahdī likewise would not narrate from him.”
Abū Ḥātim said, “Abandoned.”
Al-Nasāʾī said, “Untrustworthy.”
Shuʿbah, quoting Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, said, “ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd fabricated hadith.”
Ḥammād ibn Salamah said: Ḥumayd told me, “Do not take from him, for he used to lie about al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.” The same was stated by Ayyūb, ʿAwf, and Ibn ʿAwn.
Ayyūb said, “I never considered him to possess any intellect.”
Maṭar al-Wazzāq said, “By Allah, I would not believe him in anything.”
Ibn al-Mubārak said, “They abandoned his hadith only because he called people to qadar (the doctrine concerning divine decree).”
More than one of the foremost critics of narrators declared him weak, though others praised his devotion, asceticism, and austerity.
Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said, “He is the leader of the young reciters—so long as he does not introduce innovations.” They asked, “Did he innovate?” He replied, “By Allah, the gravest of innovations.”
Ibn Ḥibbān (4) said, “He was among the pious worshippers until he introduced what he introduced and withdrew from al-Ḥasan’s study circle…"