Muʿāwiyah said to al-Miqdām, “Do you know that al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī has passed away?”
Al-Miqdām uttered words of remembrance and return to Allah.
Then a man said to him, “Do you see it as a calamity?”
The Asadī man said, “It is a burning coal that Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has extinguished.”
Then he said, “O Muʿāwiyah, if I speak truthfully, then confirm me, and if I lie, then deny me.”
Muʿāwiyah said, “I will do so.”
He said, “I ask you by Allah, do you know that the Messenger of Allah, forbade the wearing of gold?”
He said, “By Allah, I have seen all of this in your house, O Muʿāwiyah.”
Muʿāwiyah said, “I knew that I would not escape from you, O Miqdām.”
Weakness Of The Narration
Al-Dhahabī’ says in (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 522)
«وهو أيضًا ضعيف الحديث إذا قال: “عن”، فإنه مدلس.»
Side Note: When the isnād has “بقية عن بحير”, it is considered weak unless it is proven he directly heard from him.
Imam Al-Nasāʾī (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 523)
«إذا قال: حدّثنا وأخبرنا، فهو ثقة، وإذا قال: عن فلان، فلا يؤخذ عنه، لأنه لا يُدرى عمن أخذه.»
Side Note: This clearly weakens the hadith Sunan Abi Dawud 4131 because in the chain we see “عن بحير” confirming that only when Baqiyyah clearly says ḥaddathanā Buḥayr are his narrations accepted.
Ibn Saʿd (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 522)
«كان بقية ثقة في الرواية عن الثقات، ضعيفًا في روايته عن غير الثقات.»
Side Note: Buḥayr ibn Saʿd is thiqah, so if Baqiyyah genuinely heard from him, the isnād would be fine, but because of he narrates ʿan, we cannot be certain that he heard directly from Buhayr, so the weakness remains.
Ibn Ḥibbān (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 524)
Ibn Hibban here is showing examples of his tadlīs making him untrustowrthy.
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 523)
His hadith is written but not used as proof.
Abū Musʿhir al-Ghasānī (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 524)
«أحاديث بقية ليست نقية، فكن منها على تقية.»
The hadiths of Baqiyyah are not pure, so be cautious regarding them.
Al-Dhahabī’s summary (Siyar A’lam Nubala vol. 8, p. 528)
«فحاصل الأمر أن لبقية عن الثقات أيضًا ما يُنكر، وما لا يُتابع عليه.»
Baqiyyah ibn al Walid (d.197H)
He is Ibn Sa’id ibn Ka’b ibn Hariz, the hafiz and scholar, the muhaddith of Hims, Abu Yahmad al Himyari al Kala’i, then al Maytami al Himsi, one of the well known eminent scholars. He was born in the year 110H.
Yazid ibn Abd Rabbih al Jirjisi narrated from him.
He narrated from Muhammad ibn Ziyad al Alhani, Safwan ibn Amr al Siksaki, Buhayr ibn Sa’d, Thawr ibn Yazid, Bishr ibn Abd Allah ibn Yasar, Habib ibn Salih al Tai, Husayn ibn Malik al Fazzari, al Sari ibn Yan’am al Jaballani, Dabrah ibn Malik, Uthman ibn Zufar, Utbah ibn Abi Hakim, Muhammad ibn Abd al Rahman ibn Irq al Yahsabi, Muhammad ibn al Walid al Zubaidi,
Muslim ibn Ziyad, Yunus ibn Yazid al Aili, al Wadheen ibn Ata, Yazid ibn Awf, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam, Hariz ibn Uthman, and many others. Among his shaykhs were also al Awzai (d.157H), Shu’bah (d.160H), Malik (d.179H), and Ibn al Mubarak (d.181H). His chain reached down to Yazid ibn Harun (d.206H) and his peers. He even narrated from his own student Ishaq ibn Rahawayh (d.238H).
He was one of the vessels of knowledge, but he spoiled it by narrating too much from weak people and common folk, and by transmitting from anyone who came and went.
Those who narrated from him include Shu’bah, the two Hammads, al Awzai, and Ibn Jurayj who were his teachers, and from his contemporaries Ibn al Mubarak, Yazid ibn Harun, al Walid ibn Muslim, and Waki’. From those younger than him were Ismail ibn Ayyash, who was older than him in age, Haywah ibn Shurayh, Yazid ibn Abd Rabbih, Asad ibn Musa, Dawud ibn Rashid, Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, Ali ibn Hujr, Naim ibn Hammad, Hisham ibn Ammar, Ibrahim ibn Musa al Farra, Suwayd ibn Said, Amr ibn Uthman ibn Said, his brother Yahya, Abu al Taqi Hisham ibn Abd al Malik, Muhammad ibn Musaffa, Isa ibn Ahmad al Asqalani, Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Hanan, Muhanna ibn Yahya, Hisham ibn Khalid al Azraq, Yaqub al Duraqi, Abda ibn Abd al Rahim al Marwazi, and many others, the last of them being Abu Utbah Ahmad ibn al Faraj al Hijazi.
Rabah ibn Zayd al Kufi narrated from Ibn al Mubarak (d.181H) who said, “If Ismail ibn Ayyash and Baqiyyah ibn al Walid are gathered, I prefer Baqiyyah.”
Sufyan ibn Abd al Malik narrated from Ibn al Mubarak that he said, “Baqiyyah was truthful, but he would write from whoever came and went.”
Yahya ibn al Mughira al Razi narrated from Ibn Uyaynah (d.198H) who said, “Do not listen from Baqiyyah in matters of the Sunnah, but listen from him in narrations about reward and other matters.”
Al Dhahabi said, “For this reason most of the Imams were strict in hadiths of rulings, and were lenient to a small degree, but not entirely lenient, in hadiths of virtues and softening of the heart. They accepted what was weak in its chain but not that whose narrators were accused. Fabricated hadiths or those extremely weak were ignored, though sometimes narrated for warning or exposing their falsity.
Whoever conceals this or disguises it is a betrayer of the Sunnah and treacherous toward Allah and His Messenger. If he is ignorant of this, he may be excused by ignorance, but Allah said, ‘Ask the people of knowledge if you do not know.’”
Abu Muin al Razi narrated from Yahya ibn Ma’in (d.233H) that Shu’bah (d.160H) honored Baqiyyah when he arrived in Baghdad.
Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d.290H) said, “My father was asked about Baqiyyah and Ismail (Ibn Ayyash), and he said, ‘I prefer Baqiyyah, but if he narrates from people who are unknown, then do not accept it.’”
Ahmad ibn Zuhayr said, “I asked Ibn Ma’in about Baqiyyah, and he said, ‘If he narrates from trustworthy people like Safwan ibn Amr and others, then yes, but if he narrates from the unknown ones, then no. And if he conceals the name or uses a kunyah instead, it is worth nothing.’ He was asked, ‘Which of them is firmer, he or Ismail?’ He said, ‘Both are good.’”
Yaqub ibn Shaybah narrated from Ahmad ibn al Abbas, who heard Yahya ibn Ma’in say, “Baqiyyah narrated from those younger than him, and he had two thousand authentic hadiths from Shu’bah.
He would discuss fiqh with Shu’bah. Abu Nuaim told me, ‘Baqiyyah withheld his hadith from the trustworthy ones. I asked him for the book of Safwan, and he said, “The book of Safwan?” Then Ibn Ma’in said, ‘He would narrate one hundred hadiths from weak narrators before narrating one from a reliable one.’”
Yaqub ibn Shaybah said, “Baqiyyah is trustworthy, sound in hadith when narrating from known narrators, but he narrates from people who are abandoned and weak, and he changes names to kunyahs and kunyahs to names, and narrates from those younger than him. He even narrated from Suwayd ibn Said al Hadathani.”
Ibn Sa’d (d.230H) said, “He was trustworthy when narrating from the trustworthy, weak when narrating from the untrustworthy.”
Al Dhahabi said, “He is also weak when he says ‘an’ because he was a mudallis (one who conceals the intermediary).”
Ahmad al Ajli (d.261H) said, “He is trustworthy when narrating from the known narrators, but if he narrates from the unknown, then he is nothing.”
Abu Zur’ah (d.264H) said, “Baqiyyah is a wonder. When he narrates from the trustworthy, he is trustworthy, but he narrates from people who are not known and who do not memorize properly. He has no flaw except his abundance of narration from the unknown. As for honesty, he is not accused.”
Abu Hatim (d.277H) said, “His hadith is written but not used as proof, though he is more beloved to me than Ismail ibn Ayyash.”
Al Nasa’i (d.303H) said, “If he says ‘haddathana’ or ‘akhbarana,’ he is trustworthy, but if he says ‘an’ (from), then his narration is not taken because it is not known from whom he heard.”
Ibn Adi (d.365H) said, “He differs from the trustworthy narrators in some reports. When he narrates from the people of Sham, he is firm, but when he narrates from others, he mixes. When he narrates from the unknown, the problem is from them, not him. He is a man of hadith who narrated from both the young and the old, and the major scholars narrated from him, and this describes Baqiyyah.”
Ibn Hibban (d.354H) said, “Baqiyyah heard from Shu’bah, Malik, and others sound hadiths. Then he heard from people who were liars who claimed to narrate from Shu’bah and Malik, so he narrated from the trustworthy by tadlis what he had taken from the weak.
He would say, ‘Malik said,’ or ‘Shu’bah said,’ when in fact he heard that from weak people who claimed to narrate from them, so the fabricated material became attached to Baqiyyah and the forger was hidden in between.”
Abu Mushir al Ghassani said, “The hadiths of Baqiyyah are not clean, so be cautious regarding them.”
Abu Ishaq al Jawzajani said, “May Allah have mercy on Baqiyyah, he did not care much from whom he took the strange narrations, but if he narrated from trustworthy people, there is no harm.”
Abd Allah ibn Ahmad said, “I asked my father about Dhamrah and Baqiyyah, and he said, ‘Dhamrah is more beloved to us, Dhamrah is trustworthy, a righteous man.’”
Abu Dawud (d.275H) said, “Baqiyyah is in better condition than al Walid ibn Muslim, though people do not see it that way.”
Hajjaj ibn al Sha’ir said, “Sufyan ibn Uyaynah was asked about a light anecdotal hadith, and he said, ‘Abu al Ajab informed us, meaning Baqiyyah ibn al Walid informed us.’”
Imam of the Imams Ibn Khuzaymah (d.311H) said, “I do not use Baqiyyah as proof.” Then he said, “Ahmad ibn al Hasan al Tirmidhi told us, I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say, ‘I used to think Baqiyyah only narrated the strange reports from the unknown, but I found that he also narrated them from the well known, so I knew where the issue was.’”
Ibn Hibban said, “I entered Hims and my greatest concern was the matter of Baqiyyah, so I followed his narrations carefully, wrote down all copies accurately, and traced the reports of the early narrators from him. I found him trustworthy and reliable, but he was a mudallis.
He used to make tadlis from Ubayd Allah ibn Umar, Shu’bah, and Malik, what he had heard from the likes of Mujashi’ ibn Amr, al Sari ibn Abd al Hamid, and Umar ibn Musa al Maytami, and others like them. He would say, ‘Ubayd Allah said,’ or ‘Malik said,’ so people thought it was Baqiyyah from Ubayd Allah or Malik, but the weak intermediary had fallen out, and so the fabrication stuck to Baqiyyah while the fabricator was hidden in the middle.
Yahya Ibn Ma’in still considered him reliable.”
He narrated from trustworthy narrators but sometimes mistakes occurred, and he was known for tadlis when he used “an.” When he stated “haddathana” clearly, his narration was considered sound.
He died in the year 197H at the age of eighty seven. In the same year died Waki’ (d.197H), the hafiz of Iraq, Ibn Wahb (d.197H), the hafiz of Egypt, Hisham ibn Yusuf, the judge of Yemen, Shu’ayb ibn Harb in al Mada’in, and Uthman ibn Said Warsh, the reciter of Egypt. May Allah have mercy on him.
Siyar A’lam Nubala By Al Dhahabi (8/519-534)
