He also cited, with his own chain of transmission, the ḥadīth related by Jābir:
“The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear…” (1)
—and so on.
Al-Khaṭīb (2) said of him: “He was one of the eminent scholars, a man of learning, reliability, and trustworthiness. During the caliphate of al-Mutawakkil he served as judge of the eastern district. He compiled a year-by-year history and transmitted a large body of ḥadīth.”
Another biographer (3) wrote: “He was pious and devout, authored several books, had a fine grasp of historical events, produced an excellent chronicle, and was generous and magnanimous.”
Ibn ʿAsākir (4) records several admirable anecdotes about him, among them the following: One of his companions once informed him, on the eve of ʿĪd, that hardship had befallen him. Abu Ḥassān had nothing on hand but one hundred dinars, yet he sent them, still tied in their pouch, to that man. The recipient was then approached by another friend who complained of the very same need, so he passed the pouch on to him. Unaware of any of this, Abu Ḥassān later wrote to the second man asking to borrow something; the latter immediately returned the identical hundred dinars. When Abu Ḥassān recognized the purse he was astonished, mounted his animal, and went to inquire. The man told him that So-and-so had sent it to him. The three then gathered and divided the hundred dinars among themselves. May Allah be pleased with them and reward their noble conduct.
In the same year there passed away Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī, one of the transmitters of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ from Mālik (5), and ʿAbd Allah ibn Dhakwān, a celebrated Qurʼān reciter (6).
(1) The hadith of Jabir was transmitted by Ibn Asakir in his Tarikh and is included in the Ikhtisar Tarikh Ibn Asakir by Ibn Manzur (vol. 6, p. 347). It also appears in:
• Sahih al-Bukhari (vol. 1, p. 117), Book of Faith, chapter “The virtue of one who seeks to clear himself regarding his religion,” and in the Book of Sales, chapter “The permissible is clear and the forbidden is clear.”
• Sahih Muslim, no. 1599, Kitab al-Musaqah, “Taking the lawful and abandoning the doubtful.”
• Sunan Abū Dāwūd, nos. 3329, 3330.
• Sunan al-Tirmidhī, no. 1205.
• Sunan al-Nasā’ī (vol. 7, p. 241) from Nuʿmān b. Bashīr (may Allah be pleased with him).
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalī comments in Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam (p. 63): “This hadith is ṣaḥīḥ, agreed upon by all, in the version of Nuʿmān b. Bashīr.” It is also reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) by way of Ibn ʿUmar, ʿAmmār b. Yāsir, Jabir b. ʿAbd Allāh, Ibn Masʿūd, and Ibn ʿAbbās; among these, the narration of Nuʿmān is the most authentic. The Yemeni scholar al-Shawkānī wrote a treatise on this hadith entitled Kashf al-Shubuhāt ʿan al-Mushtabihāt (Unveiling the Doubtful Matters Regarding the Dubious), which may be consulted.
(2) al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tarīkh Baghdād (vol. 7, p. 356); Ikhtisār Tarīkh Ibn ʿAsākir by Ibn Manẓūr (vol. 6, p. 347).
(3) Ikhtisār Tarīkh Ibn ʿAsākir by Ibn Manẓūr (vol. 6, p. 347).
(4) Ikhtisār Tarīkh Ibn ʿAsākir (vol. 6, p. 349); Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (vol. 11, p. 497).
(5) Aḥmad b. Abī Bakr al-Zuhri (al-Qāsim b. al-Ḥārith), jurist, judge, and mufti of Medina. He studied under Mālik, from whom he heard the Muwattaʾ, and remained with him for a time. Zubayr b. Bakkār reports that he died as the acknowledged jurist of Medina, without dispute, at the age of ninety-two. See Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (vol. 11, p. 436); al-ʿIbar (vol. 1, p. 436).
(6) ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Bashīr b. Dhakwān, Abu ʿAmr (also called Abu Muḥammad), the reciter and chief of Qurʾānic reciters in Syria, imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. He studied under Ayyūb b. Tamīm. See Ghayat al-Nihāyah (vol. 1, p. 404).