Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Salmān al-Marwazī

Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Salmān al-Marwazī, Abū Zayd ʿImrān ibn Firīnām, and Ibrāhīm ibn Manṣūr—the latter two of Bukhara—related to us. They said: We heard Abū ʿIṣma Saʿd ibn Muʿādh say: I heard ʿUmar ibn Ḥammād ibn Abī Ḥanīfa say: I met Mālik ibn Anas, stayed with him, and listened to his teaching. When I had fulfilled my purpose—or satisfied my desire—and wished to leave him, I said: “I fear that hostile and envious people may have described Abū Ḥanīfa to you as other than he was. I want to describe to you what he actually held. If you approve, that is well; if you have something better or different, I shall learn it.” He said to me: “Go ahead.” I said: “He did not declare any believer an unbeliever because of a sin.” He said to me: “He did well”—or “He was right.” I said: “He said more than that. He would say: ‘Even if he commits grave indecencies, I do not declare him an unbeliever.’” He said: “He was right”—or “He did well.” I said: “He said more than this.” He said: “What was it?” I said: “He would say: ‘Even if he deliberately kills a man, I do not declare him an unbeliever.’” He said: “He was right”—or “He did well.” I said to him: “That was his view. Do not believe anyone who tells you that his view was otherwise.” He said to me: “I have heard that he used to say: ‘My faith is like Gabriel’s faith, peace be upon him.’” I said: “What reached you is false. Rather, he used to say: ‘God Most High sent Gabriel to the Prophet—blessings be upon them both and upon all the angels, prophets, and messengers—and commanded him to call people to faith, just as He had sent him to the nations before him. Faith is one faith. I do not say that there are two faiths or three, or that this person’s faith is different from that person’s, or this person’s Qurʾān is different from that person’s.’ That was his view.” Mālik smiled as though pleased with it and said nothing. I said to him: “He also rejected doubt and considered it mistaken.” He said: “What doubt?” I said: “Among us are people who do not say, ‘We are believers,’ without making an exception, or one of them says: ‘I do not know whether I am a believer or not.’” He disapproved of this and said: “Who says this?!”

The narrator’s alternatives (“or”) and the distinction between the reported accusation and the reply are retained. “Making an exception” is not expanded into an unstated formula.