As for Abū al-Faḍl, Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq ibn Maḥmūd al-Ḥāfiẓ, I have not been able to identify him, and the author does not list him in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ, nor does Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī mention him in his own Tadhkirah.

72 – Dhū al-Nūn, the spiritual master and preacher of Egypt (… – 245 AH)

245 – ʿUmar ibn Baḥr al-Asadī said: I heard Dhū al-Nūn al-Miṣrī — may Allah have mercy on him — say: “By the light of His Face the heavens shine; by His Face the darknesses are illumined; His majesty is veiled from every eye, yet upon His Throne the tongues of hearts speak with Him.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Shaykh recorded the narration in Kitāb al-ʿAẓamah.

Dhū al-Nūn likewise died in the year 245 AH, having reached an advanced age.

215 – I say: I do not know ʿUmar ibn Baḥr al-Asadī.

73 – Abū Thawr, one of the leading mujtahid imams (… – 240 AH)

246 – Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: ʿAyn ibn Zayd narrated to us: I heard Abū Thawr Ibrāhīm ibn Khālid, the imam, declare:

“Whoever claims that the Qur’an is created is an unbeliever in Allah. A man is not counted among the people of Sunnah unless three qualities are present in him: he affirms that the Qur’an is not created; he holds that faith is word and deed, increasing and decreasing; and he refrains from adopting Hamzah’s reading.”

Abū Thawr was one of the great repositories of knowledge. Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and other senior figures transmitted from him. He died in 240 AH in Baghdad.

216 – The chain is sound. Concerning ʿAyn ibn Zayd, Ibn Abī Ḥātim writes in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl 1/1/325: “ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Junayd narrated from him, and I myself heard from him; he is truthful.”

Note: The Hamzah referred to at the end of this report is Ibn Ḥabīb Abū ʿImārah al-Kūfī al-Zayyāt, the teacher of al-Farrāʾ and one of the seven canonical readers. The author says in al-Mīzān: