‘Abd Allah as a hujjah, and he is to be relied upon as a hujjah.

‘Abd Allah as a hujjah, and he is to be relied upon as a hujjah.[^6] And, again: وهو غريب صحيح فإن مسلما قد احتج بشريك بن عبد الله It is gharib sahih, for Muslim has relied upon Sharik b. ‘Abd Allah has a hujjah.[^7] In simpler terms, the ahadith of Sharik are sahih upon the standard of Imam Muslim, according to al-Hakim! Al-Hafiz, on his part, gives us some additional information about Sharik, which may explain the reluctance of al-Bukhari (d.

256 H) - and possibly Imam Muslim too - concerning his reports: شريك بن عبد الله النخعي الكوفي القاضي بواسط ثم الكوفة أبو عبد الله صدوق يخطئ كثيرا تغير حفظه منذ ولي القضاء بالكوفة وكان عادلا فاضلا عابدا وشديدا على أهل البدع Sharik b. ‘Abd Allah al-Nakha’i al-Kufi al-Qadi, (resided) first at Wasit and then Kufah, Abu ‘Abd Allah: Saduq (very truthful), made a lot of mistakes. His memory deteriorated since he became the judge in Kufah.

He was just, excellent, a great worshipper of Allah, and he was severe against the people of bid’ah.[^8] He developed a memory problem when he became the judge of Kufah. Before this period, he was a completely accurate narrator. However, Imam Ibn ‘Adi (d.

365 H) makes an important observation about him in this regard, which must be taken into consideration: والغالب على حديثه الصحة والاستواء والذي يقع في حديثه من النكرة إنما أتي فيه من سوء حفظه The overwhelming majority of his ahadith are sahih and accurate (from his shuyukh). As for the repugnancy in his ahadith, that occurred only due to his poor memory.[^9] This puts things into their proper perspective. Despite his memory problems, most of his ahadith are still sahih and accurate.

So, when it is said that he made “a lot” of mistakes, this was relative. His many mistakes affected only a small minority of his ahadith. To get a clearer picture, this is what Imam al-‘Ijli (d. 261 H) states: شريك بن عبد الله النخعي القاضي كوفي ثقة وكان حسن الحديث وكان أروى الناس عنه إسحاق بن يوسف الأزرق الواسطي سمع منه تسعة آلاف حديث Sharik b. ‘Abd Allah al-Nakha’i, the judge, Kufi: Thiqah (trustworthy), and he was hasan al-hadith (i.e. his ahadith are hasan).

The one who narrated most from him was Ishaq b. Yusuf al-Azraq al-Wasiti. He heard 9000 (nine thousand) ahadith from him.[^10] Apparently, Sharik was indeed a very prolific narrator. He narrated 9000 ahadith to Ishaq alone! How many more then did he transmit to others? Obviously, there were more!