Unveiling Defects of the Transmitters of Ḥadīth and Relaters of Reports and the Statements of the A’immah Regarding That

Mahmūd bin Ghaylān narrated to us, he said, I said to Abū Dāwud at-Tayālisī: ‘You transmit a great deal on authority of Abbād bin Mansūr - so how is it that you did not hear the Ḥadīth of ‘the lady perfume seller’ from him which an-Naḍr bin Shumayl transmitted to us?’ [Abū Dāwud] said to me: ‘Be quiet, for Abd ar-Rahma bin Mahdī and I met Ziyād bin Maymūn and asked him, saying to him, ‘Are these Ḥadīth you transmit on authority of Anas?’ [Ziyād] said: ‘Have you seen a man sin and then repent- does Allah not turn to him?’ [Abū Dāwud] said: ‘We said, ‘Yes’.’ [Ziyād] said: ‘I did not hear from Anas whether a little or a lot; if the people did not know, then you two would not know that I did not meet Anas’. Abū Dāwud said: ‘So it reached us afterwards that he was transmitting [from Anas], then Abd ar-Rahman and I went to him and he said: ‘I repented’. Then afterwards he was narrating [again in the same fashion] so we abandoned him ’.