Hasan bin Alī al-Hulwānī narrated to me, he said Yazīd bin Hārūn narrated to us, Hammām informed us, he said ‘Abū Dāwud al-A’mā entered upon Qatādah and when he stood, they said:
‘Indeed this one alleges he has met eighteen of the warriors of the battle of Badr’. Qatādah said: ‘This one was barely asking [about Ḥadīth] before the plague; he did not attend to anything from [seeking Ḥadīth] and he did not speak [to any scholars] regarding it. By Allah, al-Hasan did not narrate to us from a witness of the battle of Badr without an intermediary; and Sa’īd bin al-Musayyib did not narrate to us from a witness of the battle of Badr without an intermediary except from Sa’d bin Mālik’.