3. His statement: “There is not enough room here to mention them.”

I say: This is another error, for it is inconceivable that there should be even one reason—let alone several reasons—proving that al-Bukhari would say of someone from whom he had not heard, “So-and-so said to me,” for that is a lie pure and simple.

Second: You stated concerning Hisham ibn Ammar: “Al-Bukhari did not rely on him in his Sahih.”

I say: This is deception of the readers and a distortion of the scholarly facts. Everyone who wrote his biography, such as al-Hafiz al-Mizzi and others, designated him with the letter (kha), indicating that al-Bukhari relied on him. They did not state that he narrated from him merely for corroboration rather than as evidence. Indeed, the person most knowledgeable of what their symbols signify, namely al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, explicitly stated this. In the Introduction to Fath al-Bari (pp. 448–449), he mentioned three hadiths transmitted from Hisham: the first and second have uninterrupted chains, while the third is this suspended hadith concerning musical instruments. He then said:

“This is all of his material in his book which, as far as I have been able to determine, he used as evidence.”

The second hadith with an uninterrupted chain occurs in the section on the merits of Abu Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—and is numbered 3661. Thus, you have contradicted al-Hafiz’s statement that it was among the reports he used as evidence, by claiming that Hisham was corroborated in al-Bukhari under no. 4640. This is grave deception, for there is an evident difference between a trustworthy narrator being corroborated by another narrator—which occurs very frequently—and al-Bukhari’s citing a hadith from someone in whom there is weakness, then following it with another chain containing a corroborating transmission in order to strengthen it. In cases such as this and similar ones, it is said: “Al-Bukhari narrated from him only for corroboration.” But when the hadith occurs in two widely separated places in al-Bukhari, from two of his teachers, and you claim that he did not rely on one of them because he narrated from him as a corroborating narrator in the other place, this is deception of the utmost degree, in addition to contradicting the hadith masters, as mentioned above. We seek refuge with Allah from abandonment.

By way of further benefit, I shall point out to you another suspended hadith from Hisham in al-Bukhari, in