Hadith Chapter Part E

‘I was sitting near al-Qāsim bin Ubayd Allah and Yahyā bin Sa’īd [bin Qays al-Madanī al-Qāḍī], when Yahyā said to al-Qāsim: ‘Oh Abā Muhammad! Indeed it is gravely harmful for the likes of you to be asked about something from the affair of this Dīn, and then knowledge of it is not found with you, and no relief [in the form of an answer]’ -or- ‘…knowledge and no articulation’. So al-Qāsim said [to Yahyā bin Sa’īd]: ‘Where did that come from?’ [Yahyā] said: ‘It is because you are the son of two Imāms of guidance- a descendent of Abu Bakr and Umar.’ [al-Qāsim] said to him: ‘More harmful than that- according to whoever reflects about Allah- is to speak without knowledge or to take [Ḥadīth] from someone who is not trustworthy’. [Abū Aqīl] said: ‘So [Yahyā bin Sa’īd] was quiet and did not respond to him’. Bishr bin ul-Hakam al-Abdī narrated to me, he said, I heard Sufyān bin Uyaynah saying, they informed me on authority of Abī Aqīl, companion of Buhayyah, that a descendent of Abd Allah bin Umar was asked about something that he did not have knowledge about, so Yahyā bin Sa’īd said to him: ‘By Allah, indeed it is a grave matter that the likes of you, a descendent of two Imāms of guidance – meaning Umar and Ibn Umar – is asked about a matter and you have no knowledge of it’. So [al-Qāsim] said: ‘By Allah, more grave than that according to Allah, and to whoever reflects about Allah, is to speak without knowledge or to report on authority of one who is not trustworthy’. [Ibn Uyaynah] said that Abū Aqīl Yahyā bin al-Mutawakkil witnessed them both when they said that. Amr bin Alī Abū Hafs narrated to us, he said I heard Yahyā bin Sa’īd, he said: ‘I asked Sufyān ath-Thawrī , Shu’bah, Mālik, and Ibn Uyaynah about a man who is not reliable (Thabt) in Ḥadīth, and someone comes and asks me about him, and they said: ‘Inform [others] against him that he is not reliable’.’ Ubayd Allah bin Sa’īd narrated to us, he said, I heard an-Naḍr saying: ‘Ibn Awn was asked about the Ḥadīth of Shahr and he was standing at the threshold of the door, so [Ibn Awn] said: ‘Indeed they criticized Shahr, indeed they criticized Shahr’.