He was thoroughly versed in the Kufan school and authored several works on it.
Aḥmad ibn Mahdī ibn Rustam (1)—a devout worshipper and ascetic—spent three-hundred thousand dirhams in the pursuit of knowledge, and for forty years never lay down on a bed. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym relates with his chain from him that a woman once came to him one night and said:
“I have been tested with a grievous trial: I was forced into zinā (fornication) and have become pregnant from it. I have taken cover behind you, claiming that you are my husband and that this child is yours. Conceal me—may Allah conceal you—and do not disgrace me.”
He kept silent about her. When she gave birth, the people of the quarter and the imam of their mosque came to congratulate me on the newborn. I showed delight and bought, for two dinars, some sweets [and I fed them] (2). Each month I would send her, through the mosque’s imam, two dinars as maintenance for the child [saying, “Give her my greetings, for something has already occurred that has separated me from her.”] (3). I continued thus for two years. Then the child died, and they came to console me; I displayed grief and sorrow over him. The woman then brought me the dinars I had been sending her [for the child’s upkeep] (4), all gathered [in a pouch] (5), and said, “May Allah conceal you and reward you with good; these are the dinars you used to send.” (6) I said, “Good woman, I sent them only as a kindness to the child; [now he has died and you are his heir] (7), so take them and do with them as you wish.” [She prayed for me and departed] (8).
Badr ibn al-Haytham (9) ibn Khalaf ibn Khālid ibn Rāshid ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn al-Nuʿmān [ibn Muḥarriq ibn al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir] (10), Abū al-Qāsim al-Lakhmī (11), known as al-Fāḍī, was from Kūfa. He settled in Baghdad and transmitted there from Abū Kurayb and others. He did not begin listening to ḥadīth until after he was past forty years of age. Trustworthy and eminent, he lived one-hundred and seventeen years. His death occurred in Shawwāl of this year in Kūfa.