- "The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear, and between them are doubtful matters. Whoever engages in them is likely to sin, and whoever avoids them preserves his religion more, like a pasture near a sanctuary, he is likely to fall into it. Every king has a sanctuary, and the sanctuary of Allāh is the unlawful." It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr" (10/404-405/1024), and by Ibn ʿAsākir in "Tārīkh Dimashq" (7/1) through two chains from al-Walīd ibn Shujāʿ ibn al-Walīd: My father narrated to me: Sābiq al-Jazrī narrated to us that ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿAmr, the client of al-Muṭṭalib, informed him from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith from Ibn ʿAbbās: that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: ... and he mentioned it. I said: This is a rare authentic isnād, all its men are trustworthy, the men of "al-Ṣaḥīḥ"; except for Sābiq al-Jazrī—who is Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Raqī—, who was deemed trustworthy by Ibn Ḥibbān (6/433), and he said: "al-Awzāʿī and the people of al-Jazīrah narrated from him." I said: Ibn ʿAsākir named a group of them in "Tārīkh Dimashq" (7/1), and most of them are trustworthy. He provided a lengthy biography of him in eight large pages, mentioning that he came to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and recited to him poetry on asceticism, and that he was the imam of the mosque of al-Raqqah and its judge; he has a brief biography in "Tārīkh al-Raqqah" (p. 123-127). It seems that al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar did not come across his biography in "Tārīkh Ibn ʿAsākir", as he did not mention in the man's biography in "al-Lisān" these benefits that we derived from it, showing that he was known for virtue, asceticism, leadership, and judgment, and that trustworthy virtuous people narrated from him. His original biography also eluded his teacher al-Haythamī, who said in his takhrīj of the ḥadīth (10/294): "It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī, and in it is (Sābiq al-Jazrī), and I did not know him!" The three commentators who transferred it in their commentary on "al-Targhīb" (2/543) followed him, and they did not..