For people have disagreed about this statement: some have rejected it, while others have accepted it. It must be examined from two perspectives: first, whether it is authentically attributed to Shaykh Abū Sulaymān; and second, whether it is sound or unsound in itself.

Regarding the first issue, it should be understood that the teacher Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī did not transmit it from Shaykh Abū Sulaymān with a chain of transmission; he merely attributed it to him without one. In his Epistle, he sometimes supplies chains of transmission for reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Companions, the Successors, the shaykhs, and others, and sometimes cites them without chains. He frequently says in the Epistle, “Such-and-such was reported from him.”

Furthermore, what the teacher Abū al-Qāsim relates [with a chain of transmission] sometimes has a sound chain, and sometimes a weak one; indeed, it may even be fabricated. As for what he cites without a chain and with omissions,