ʿAbd Allāh al-Sabāʾī

ʿAlī ibn al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAskarī related to us. He said: Ḥumayd ibn al-Rabīʿ related to us. He said: Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥakam related to us. He said: Abū Ḥanīfa related to us, from al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū al-Julās, who said: I was among those who heard grave words from ʿAbd Allāh al-Sabāʾī. We brought him to ʿAlī, God be pleased with him, and found him in the courtyard, lying on his back with his cloak beneath his head and one leg resting on the other. He questioned him about those words, and he spoke. He asked him: “Do you transmit this from God, His Book or His Messenger, God bless him and grant him peace?” He replied: “No.” He asked: “From me, then?” He replied: “No.” He asked: “From whom do you transmit it?” He replied: “From myself.” He said: “Had you transmitted it from God, His Book or His Messenger, I would have struck off your head. Had you transmitted it from me, I would have punished you painfully, and you would have been a liar. But I heard the Messenger of God, God bless him and grant him peace, say: ‘Before the Hour there will be thirty liars,’ and you are one of them.”