For this reason, no report from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or his Companions declares large quantities impure. Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, expressed differing views on declaring large quantities impure. As for small quantities, he believed Maʿmar’s hadith to be authentic and therefore acted upon it. Others, however, discovered a defect undermining its authenticity; had he known of it, he would not have adopted that ruling. There are similar instances: he would act upon a hadith, then abandon it when its weakness became apparent to him. Conversely, he might refrain from acting upon a hadith before its authenticity became clear, then act upon it once its authenticity was established. Such is the way of people of knowledge and religious devotion, may Allah be pleased with them. Because he believed this hadith to be authentic, he gave it precedence over the reports he had encountered from the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them all.

Sālih ibn Ahmad reported in his Masāʾil, on the authority of his father, Ahmad ibn Hanbal:

My father narrated to us: Ismāʿīl narrated to us: ʿUmārah ibn Abī Hafsah narrated to us, from ʿIkrimah, that Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about a mouse that had died in clarified butter. He said, “Remove the mouse and the clarified butter surrounding it.”

I said, “Our master, but there were traces of it throughout the clarified butter!”

He replied, “May you bite your father’s private parts! It left those traces in the clarified butter only while it was alive. It died only where it was found.”

My father narrated to us: Wakīʿ narrated to us: al-Nadr ibn ʿArabī narrated to us, from ʿIkrimah, who said:

A man came to Ibn ʿAbbās and asked him about a jar of oil into which a rat had fallen. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Remove it and the oil surrounding it, throw that away, and eat the rest.”

I said, “Had it not moved throughout the jar?”

He replied, “It moved about while it was alive, then came to rest where it died.”

Al-Khallāl also reported from Sālih, who said:

My father narrated to us: Wakīʿ narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us, from Humrān ibn Aʿyan, from Abū Harb ibn Abī