these are the statements of the authors of "al-Ṭabaqāt"; Ibn ʿAsākir narrated from Ibn Saʿd that he included him in (the second level) of the followers of Syria. And from Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī that he mentioned him in the level following the Companions of the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), which is the highest. Similarly, Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī said in "al-Maʿrifah" (2/333). Aḥmad used this ḥadīth to argue against the permissibility of rebelling against the leaders, and mentioned that it came from multiple sources, as narrated from him by al-Khallāl in "al-Sunnah" (1-3/129, edited by al-Zahrānī). In summary, the man is very hasty in weakening authentic ḥadīths without relying on scholarly principles, and often clings to some weak opinions in his weakening, as he did in his criticism of the ḥadīth of Abū Qatādah, which is elevated (number 957): "Fasting on the day of ʿArafah expiates the past and coming year," by claiming that the narrator from Abū Qatādah—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maʿbad al-Zamānī—has no known hearing from Abū Qatādah! He is a trustworthy follower, and contemporaneity is sufficient for connection, and he was not accused of tadlīs, so I do not know whether he is ignorant of this, or is it feigned ignorance?! Just as he ignored the corroborative evidence that confirms its authenticity, and I have documented it with its corroborations in "Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl" (4/108-110). His feigned ignorance and tyranny in weakening authentic ḥadīths reached the point where he weakened the ḥadīth of al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah: "I advise you to fear Allāh..." the ḥadīth, and in it: "So adhere to my sunnah and the sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs, hold onto it with your molars..." the ḥadīth. He said (p. 79): "It was authenticated by al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Ḥākim, but weakened by Ibn al-Qaṭṭān due to the unknown status of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-Sulamī, and I lean towards this!"