al-Dāraquṭnī said: "He was the most reliable of people regarding Ibn Jurayj." Those below him are trustworthy; however, Aḥmad ibn Zakarīyā ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Masarrah, I did not find a biography for him in the books of men that I have; except that al-Fākihī in "Akhbār Makkah" (2/348) mentioned that he used to issue fatwás in Makkah, and after him, his son ʿAbd Allāh. Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy (8/369), and Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: "His place is truthfulness," and al-Dhahabī described him in "al-Siyar" (12/632) as: "the imām, the muḥaddith, the musnid." ʿAbd al-Majīd was contradicted by Abū ʿĀṣim—who is al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Mukhallad al-Nabīl—in his isnād and matn. As for the isnād; he said: "Abī Masʿūd al-Zuraqī" instead of: "Masʿūd ibn al-Ḥakam al-Zuraqī." It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd (546): ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq al-Jawharī told us: Abū ʿĀṣim informed us from Ibn Jurayj from Mūsá ibn ʿUqbah from Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr from Abī Masʿūd al-Zuraqī from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib... I said: And Abū Masʿūd al-Zuraqī is not known except through this narration, so it seems to be an error from Abū ʿĀṣim, he did not preserve it, and this is indicated by the fact that he was inconsistent in his isnād and did not settle on it, rather he omitted it and sent it. It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd (545) with the same chain from Mūsá ibn ʿUqbah from Sālim Abū al-Naḍr who said: "When the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) saw them few in number when the prayer was established in the mosque, he would sit and not pray, and when he saw them in a group, he would pray."