“I saw him, but did not write anything from him.” Others declared him weak. As for Ibn Hibban, he listed him among the reliable narrators (9/279)! Al-Tayyib ibn Sulayman is better than he is: Ibn Hibban deemed him reliable (8/328), as did al-Tabarani, while al-Daraqutni said, “Weak.”

However, the hadith is supported by the Prophet’s prohibition of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr from completing the recitation of the Quran in fewer than three days, and by his saying: “Whoever recites the Quran in fewer than three days will not understand it.” This is authentically established from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and has been documented in Sifat al-Salah (pp. 118–119, seventh edition). See also hadiths 1512 and 1513 and the remarks beneath them.

This is not contradicted by what is authentically reported from some of the early generations that differs from this sound sunnah, for apparently it had not reached them. How excellent are the words of Imam al-Dhahabi—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—in his biography of the hadith master Wakiʿ ibn al-Jarrah, in his great work Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ (7/39/2). It is reported of Wakiʿ that he fasted continuously throughout the year and completed the Quran every night. Al-Dhahabi said:

“I say: This is worship that inspires reverence; yet, coming from an imam among the traditionalist imams, it is less preferable. For the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was authentically reported to have forbidden perpetual fasting, and it is authentically established that he forbade completing the Quran in fewer than three days. Religion is ease, and adherence to the sunnah is more deserving. May Allah be pleased with Wakiʿ—but where is anyone like Wakiʿ? Even so, he habitually drank Kufan nabidh, a fermented drink that intoxicates when consumed in large quantities. He did so on the basis of an interpretation, but it would have been better for him to abstain from it out of scrupulous piety, for whoever avoids doubtful matters safeguards his religion and his honour. The prohibition and unlawfulness of the aforementioned drink have been authentically established from the Prophet. This is not the place to discuss such matters. Every person’s statements may be accepted or rejected; thus, a scholar’s error is not to be followed as an example. Yet he is not to be reproached for what he did through independent legal reasoning. We ask Allah for pardon.”