354 AH) wrote: "Sayf attributed fabricated traditions to the good reporters.

354 AH) wrote: "Sayf attributed fabricated traditions to the good reporters. He was accused of being a heretic and a liar." (8) Ibn Abd al-Barr (d. 462 AH) mentined in his writing abut al-Qa'qa: "Sayf reported that al-Qa'qa Said: I attended the death of the ." Ibn Adb al-Barr continued: "Ibn Abu Hatam said: Sayf is weak. Thus, what was conveyed of the presence of al-Qa'qa at the death of the Prophet is rejected. We mentioned the Sayf's traditions for knowledge only." (9) al-Darqutini (d.

385 AH) wrote: "Sayf is weak". (10) Firoozabadi (d. 817 AH) in "Towalif" mentioned Sayf and some others by saying: "They are weak." (11) Ibn al-Sakan (d. 353 AH) wrote: "Sayf is weak." (12) Safi al-Din (d. 923 AH) wrote: "Sayf is considered weak." (13) Ibn Udei (d. 365 AH) wrote about Sayf: "He is weak. Some of his narrations are famous yet the majority of his narrations are disgraceful and not followed." (14) al-Suyuti (d. 900 AH) wrote: "Sayf's Hadith is weak." (15) Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d.

852 AH) wrote after mentioning a tradition: "Many reporters of this tradition are weak, and the weakest among them is Sayf." It is interesting to see that although al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH) has quoted from the book of Sayf in his History, he has mentioned in his other book that Sayf as a weak narrator.

In "al-Mughni fi al-Dhu'afa'" al-Dhahabi wrote: "Sayf has two books which have been unanimously abandoned by the scholars." (al-Mughni fi al-Dhu'afa', by al-Dhahabi, p292) The result of the investigation into Sayf's life shows that Sayf was an agnostic and an unreliable story teller. Stories told by him are dubious and are entirely or partly forged. In his stories, he has used names of cities which never existed in the world. Abdullah Ibn Saba are the star of those stories.

He also introduced some 150 imaginary companions for the Prophet to fill out the empty characters of his scenarios, by giving them some strange names which are not found in any other documents. Also the timing of the events given by Sayf's narrations contradict the authentic Sunni documents. Sayf has also used imaginary chains of narrators, and reported many miraculous events (like talking cows with human etc...).

Some of the defenders of Sayf hold the opinion that eventhough he was known as a weak transmitter and many scholars of Hadith do not trust his reports, it is only in the matter of the Shari'ah (the Law), but not in the matter of historical report!