The hadith scholars rejected this from him, paid no attention to his claim, and did not deem his action sound (1).
Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī said: “Al-Ḥākim asserted, ‘The ḥadīth of the bird was not recorded in either Ṣaḥīḥ, yet it is authentic.’” Ibn Ṭāhir responded, “On the contrary, it is fabricated; it is transmitted only by the discredited and unknown transmitters of Kūfah from Anas. If al-Ḥākim is unaware of this, he is ignorant; if he is aware, then he is a stubborn liar.”
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (2) related: “I visited al-Ḥākim while he was hiding from the Karrāmiyyah and unable to leave his house because of them. I said, ‘If you would come out and dictate a ḥadīth on the virtues of Muʿāwiyah, you would be relieved of your predicament.’ He replied, ‘It does not come from my heart; it does not come from my heart.’”
He died in Ṣafar of this year at the age of eighty-four. May Allah have mercy upon him.
Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn Kajj (3), Abū al-Qāsim al-Qāḍī, was one of the leading Shāfiʿī jurists, known for presenting unusual legal positions within the school. Endowed with immense wealth, he served as judge in Dīnawar for Badr ibn Ḥasanwayh. After Badr’s death the situation in the region deteriorated; a band of ʿayyārūn (ruffians) rose against him and killed him on the night of the twenty-seventh of Ramaḍān this year. May Allah have mercy upon him (4).
[Then came the year 406 AH]
On Tuesday, the first of Muḥarram that year, fighting broke out between the Sunnis and the Rāfiḍites. The vizier Fakhr al-Mulk calmed the turmoil on the understanding that the Rāfiḍites would be allowed to perform their innovation on the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ—donning sackcloth and wailing.
In the same month news arrived of a severe plague in Baṣrah that overwhelmed the gravediggers and the populace so that they were unable to bury their dead. It was further reported that a cloud had covered the city in June and drenched it with torrential rain.
On Saturday, the third of Ṣafar, al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā Abū al-Qāsim was invested with the offices of naqīb of the Ṭālibids, oversight of grievances, supervision of the ḥajj, and all the posts previously held by his brother al-Raḍī. His patent of appointment was read out in the presence of the vizier Fakhr al-Mulk, the judges, and the notables, making it a day long remembered.