English translation
[91] 'Abdur-Raḥmān bin Bishr Al-'Abdī narrated to me, he said: "I heard Yaḥyā bin Sa'eed Al-Qaṭṭān say, when mention was made in his presence of Muḥammad bin 'Abdullāh bin 'Ubaid bin 'Umayr Al-Laithī, that he was very weak (in narration). It was said to Yaḥyā: 'Weaker than Ya'qūb bin 'Aṭā?' He said: 'Yes.' Then he said: 'I did not think that anyone would narrate from Muḥammad bin 'Abdullāh bin 'Ubaid bin 'Umayr.'" commands and prohibitions, exhortation and warning. If the narrator is not sincere and honest, and the one who knows of his faults hears it and narrates it - without explaining his faults to one who is unaware of them - then he will be sinning if he does that; betraying the common folk of the Muslims. For he cannot be certain that some of those who hear those reports will not follow and accept them, or some of them, although they - or most of them - are lies that have no basis. Moreover, the authentic reports, which are narrated from trustworthy narrators and the people who are accepted, are so great in number, that there is no need to quote from narrators that are not trustworthy and not accepted. I think that the reason why most of the people of this type narrate these weak Ahâdîth and chains of unknown narrators, and accept them after knowing of their faults, is to show how much knowledge of Hadîth they have before the masses, and so that it will be said: "How many Ahâdîth so-and-so has memorized and recorded!" Whoever follows such a path with knowledge, then he has no share of true knowledge, and it is more befitting that he should be called ignorant rather than knowledgeable.