108 – I say: As for al-Layth ibn Yaḥyā al-Bukhārī, I have found no biographical entry for him. Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl is truthful but has a poor memory. Regarding Ibrāhīm, Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim declared him reliable, whereas Abū Ḥātim criticized him.
128 – Shuʿayb ibn Ḥarb said: I asked Sufyān, “Tell me something from the Sunnah.” He replied:
“The Quran is the speech of Allah, uncreated; from Him it began and to Him it returns.¹ Whoever says otherwise is a disbeliever. Faith is words and deeds; it rises and falls.” He then went on at some length.
6 – Mālik, the Imām of the Abode of Emigration (93–179 AH)
129 – Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā al-Tabbāʿ reported that Mālik said: “Whenever someone more argumentative than the last comes to us, shall we abandon what Gabriel brought down to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) for the sake of his disputation?”
109 – I say: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr recorded it in al-Jāmiʿ (2/95) with similar wording, and al-Harawī included it in Dhamm al-Kalām 5/94/1 through al-Tabbāʿ. Its chain is sound.
130 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal narrated in al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyyah: My father related to me—mentioning the chain—that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ said: Mālik ibn Anas declared, “Allah is above the heaven, and His knowledge is in every place; nothing is devoid of it.”
110 – I say: ʿAbd Allāh also recorded it in al-Sunnah (p. 5); likewise Abū Dāwūd in al-Masāʾil (p. 263), al-Ājurri (p. 289), and al-Lālakāʾī (1/92/2). The chain is sound, and Imām Aḥmad used it as evidence in the version preserved by al-Ājurri. Al-Kawtharī’s assertion, in the introduction to al-Asmāʾ (p. ṭ), that “it contains ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ al-Aṣamm, whose transmissions from Mālik are anomalous,” is sheer fabrication or deception, for none of the critical scholars ever disparaged him with such a charge. On the contrary, regarding his narrations from Mālik in particular they said, “He is the most knowledgeable of people about Mālik’s opinion and hadith.” Consult al-Tahdhīb if you wish. As for labeling him “al-Aṣamm” (“the deaf”), that is a clear mistake; his correct epithet is “al-Ṣāʾigh” (“the goldsmith”).