Muslim, may Allah have mercy on him, said
‘He means- the tongues of men were busy criticizing him’.’ Hajjāj bin ush-Shā’ir narrated to me, Shabābah narrated to us, he said, Shu’bah said: ‘I had met Shahr then abandoned transmitting from him’. Muhammad bin Abd Allah bin Quhzādh, from the people of Marw, narrated to me, he said Alī bin Husayn bin Wāqid informed me, he said Abd Allah bin al-Mubārak said, I said to Sufyān ath-Thawrī: ‘Indeed Abbād bin Kathīr, about whose condition you are aware, when he related [narrations] he introduced a grave matter- do you believe that it should be said to the people ‘Do not take from him?’ Sufyān said: ‘Indeed!’ Abd Allah [bin al-Mubārak] said: ‘So when I was in an assembly and Abbād was mentioned there, I praised him regarding his Dīn and said: ‘Do not take from him.’ Muhammad said, Abd Allah bin Uthmān narrated to us, he said, my father said, Abd Allah bin al-Mubārak said: ‘I ended up in an assembly of Shu’bah, and he said: ‘This is Abbād bin Kathīr so be warned against him.’ Al-Faḍl bin Sahl narrated to me, he said, I asked Mu’allā ar-Rāzī about Muhammad bin Sa’īd whom Abbād transmitted from, so he informed me about what Īsā bin Yūnus said: ‘I was at his door and Sufyān was with [Muhammad bin Sa’īd], then when he came out I asked [Sufyān] about him. So he informed me that he was a liar.’ Muhammad bin Abī Attāb narrated to me, he said Affān narrated to me, on authority of Muhammad bin Yahyā bin Sa’īd al-Qattān, on authority of his father, he said: ‘We do not see the righteous more false in anything than they are regarding Ḥadīth’. Ibn Abī Attāb said: ‘So Muhammad bin Yahyā bin Sa’īd al-Qattān and I met and I asked him about it and he said on authority of his father: ‘You will not see the people of good (Ahl ul-Khayr) more false in anything than they are regarding Ḥadīth.’ Muslim said: ‘He was saying that falsehood flows upon their tongues although they do not intend to lie’. Al-Faḍl bin Sahl narrated to me, he said Yazīd bin Hārūn narrated to us, he said Khalīfah bin Mūsā informed me, he said: ‘I entered upon Ghālib bin Ubayd Allah so he began dictating to me ‘Mak’hūl narrated to me this’ and ‘Mak’hūl narrated to me that’. So he prepared to answer the call of nature and stood up, then I looked in his notebook and in it was ‘Abān narrated to me, on authority of Anas’ and ‘Abān on authority of so-and-so’. So I abandoned [listening to his Ḥadīth] and stood up [to leave]’. I heard al-Hasan bin Alī al-Hulwānī saying: ‘I saw in one of the books of Affān a Ḥadīth of Hishām Abīl-Miqdām meaning a Ḥadīth of Umar bin Abd il-Azīz. [In it was written] ‘Hishām said: ‘A man said to be Yahyā bin so-and-so narrated to me, on authority of Muhammad bin Ka’b…’ [Al-Hulwānī] said, I said to Affān: ‘They would say Hishām heard it [directly] from Muhammad bin Ka’b’. So [Affān] said: ‘Indeed Hishām was stricken [with accusations of lying] with regards to this Ḥadīth for he would say ‘Yahyā narrated to me on authority of Muhammad’, then he claimed afterwards that he heard it from Muhammad [directly]’.’