especially someone such as Abū Mikhnaf Lūt ibn Yahyā and others like him. It is well known that al-Wāqidī himself is regarded more favorably by scholars than the likes of Hishām ibn al-Kalbī, his father Muhammad ibn al-Sā’ib, and others like them. Yet the scholars’ criticisms of al-Wāqidī are well known. Reports transmitted by him and others like him may serve only as corroboration and supplementary support; relying on them alone to establish knowledge is not sound.
Thus, when reliable authorities state that al-Husayn’s head was buried in Medina, while others claim that it was either returned to his body and buried with it at Karbala, or buried in Aleppo, Damascus, or elsewhere—claims that have no foundation—and no reliable authority mentions that it is in Ascalon, it becomes clear that this claim is false. For in matters of transmitted history, which are learned only from knowledgeable and truthful people, not from the ignorant and dishonest, it is impossible that the knowledgeable and truthful should be wrong while the ignorant and dishonest are right.
The fourth point:
What is established in Sahīh al-Bukhārī is:
“The head was brought before ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Ziyād, who began tapping its front teeth with a rod in the presence of Anas ibn Mālik.”
And in al-Musnad:
“This took place in the presence of Abū Barzah al-Aslamī.”
Some people, however, have related through a disconnected chain of transmission:
“This tapping took place in the presence of Yazīd ibn Mu‘āwiyah.”
This is false. For Abū Barzah and Anas