“I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, should I preserve knowledge in writing?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ I said: ‘And how is it preserved?’ He said: ‘By writing.’”

It was transmitted by al-Ḥākim, al-Khaṭīb in al-Taqyīd (p. 68), Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī in al-ʿIlm (fol. 29/1), and ʿAfīf al-Dīn in Faḍl al-ʿIlm (fol. 125/2). Al-Ḥākim said: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muʾammal is unreliable.” Al-Dhahabī said in al-Talkhīṣ: “Weak.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “Weak in hadith.”

I say: More than one scholar deemed him trustworthy. It appears that those who declared him weak did so only on account of his retention, not because of any accusation against his personal integrity. Al-Ḥāfiẓ concluded his biographical notice by saying: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh”—I think he meant al-Dhahabī—said: “He had poor retention; we know of no criticism of him that would invalidate his uprightness.”

I say: Once you know this, such a narrator may be used as corroborative evidence, and the hadith thereby rises to the rank of authentic through corroboration—especially since permission to write is established in more than one hadith. Perhaps I shall mention some of them shortly, if Allah wills.

It also has another route from Ibn ʿAmr: Zayd ibn Yaḥyā al-Dimashqī narrated to us from ʿImrān ibn Mūsā, from Makḥūl, from him, attributed to the Prophet. Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted it in Tārīkh Dimashq (12/343/2), in the biographical notice of this ʿImrān, without mentioning any criticism or commendation of him. It appears to me that he was the brother of Ayyūb ibn Mūsā. He heard from Saʿīd al-Maqburī and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Ibn Jurayj also narrated from him, as stated in al-Jarḥ (3/1/305), but did not