An Error by Ibn ʿAdī!

Ibn ʿAdī mentioned in al-Kāmil (7/206):

“Yaḥyā ibn al-Mutawakkil al-Bāhilī, the client of the family of ʿUmar, a Madinan whose kunyah was Abū ʿAqīl; he was a cobbler and weak.”

Then he said:

“I heard Ibn Ḥammād say: al-Saʿdī said: ‘Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī—his ḥadīths are objectionable (munkar).’” End quote.

I say: This is an error on his part—may Allah have mercy on him—from two angles:

First: What al-Saʿdī said is not about Yaḥyā ibn al-Mutawakkil Abū ʿAqīl.

I do not know how Ibn ʿAdī overlooked al-Saʿdī’s wording: “Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī,” while Yaḥyā ibn al-Mutawakkil is not Thaqafī.

Second: Al-Saʿdī did not declare Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī weak. Rather, he said in the biography of ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd:

“ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd, from whom Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī narrates—his ḥadīths are objectionable; his narration among those firmly grounded in knowledge is a disconnected (muʿḍal) ḥadīth.”
(Aḥwāl al-Rijāl, p. 163)

What is astonishing about Ibn ʿAdī is that he himself transmitted this very statement of al-Saʿdī in his book under the biography of ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd (4/237), where he said:

“ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd. I heard Ibn Ḥammād say: ‘ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd, from whom Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī narrates—his ḥadīths are objectionable,’ as stated by al-Saʿdī. And what he transmitted from al-Saʿdī—I do not know its basis.”

I say: It is as though what he transmitted from al-Saʿdī in the earlier biography of Yaḥyā was written from memory, and thus he erred—may Allah have mercy on him.

Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī’s name is ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAqīl, and he is trustworthy. The one whose ḥadīths are objectionable is ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd.

Al-Bukhārī said in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (5/158):

“ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAqīl Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī narrated from Yazīd ibn Sinān al-Rahāwī.

Abū Jaʿfar said: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim narrated to us; Abū ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī narrated to us from ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd, from Rabīʿah ibn Yazīd and ʿAṭiyyah ibn Qays, from ʿAṭiyyah al-Saʿdī, one of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘A servant will not reach the rank of the God-fearing until he abandons that in which there is no harm, out of fear of that in which there is harm.’”

And he said (5/229):

“ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd narrated from Rabīʿah ibn Yazīd and ʿAṭiyyah ibn Qays. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAqīl narrated from him.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (5/200):

“ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd narrated from Rabīʿah ibn Yazīd and ʿAṭiyyah ibn Qays. Abū ʿAqīl ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAqīl al-Thaqafī and Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-Anṣārī narrated from him. I heard my father say that.”

Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik
20/3/2009