Shaykh ʿAbdullāh al-Bukhārī:

Nu’aym bin Ḥammād was an Imām of the Sunnah, criticised by some regarding his precision and memory, yet he was a backbone supporting the Sunnah, stern towards the people of innovation.

One day, he narrated a ḥadīth, whilst sitting among some of his students. With him were his notes and papers, and they were writing. In attendance at that gathering was the Imam Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā bin Ma’īn.

Nu’aym said, transmitting a ḥadīth: “Abdullāh bin Al-Mubārak informed us from ibn ‘Awn such and such”, upon which Yaḥyā said in the gathering: “I don’t think it was from the narration of Ibn al-Mubārak from Ibn ‘Awn”. Nu’aym became angry and said: “You find an error with me?”, “You find a mistake with me?” ‘Like this, you just come and attend…’

He is not from the regular students, he only attended, and the others have notebooks. “Are we not reading from the books and you from your head you find an error?!”

He (Yaḥyā) replied: “I correct you intending your beautification”, to beautify you. So he became angry and so did the students, they looked at Yaḥyā like this… (Yaḥyā) said: “So when I noticed that he became angry, I said: ‘by Allāh! It is not from the narration of Ibn al-Mubārak from Ibn ‘Awn’.”

“First I said: ‘maybe’, ‘I think’, ‘it may not be a narration from…’, but since we’ve now entered upon staunch rejection, then by Allāh it is not as such.”

So Nu’aym then stood – and look to Nu’aym, his justness, and his adhering to the Sunnah. He did not become haughty, prideful, or livid. He rose, entered his house, took out his original reference books, then exited. He said: “where are those that say Abū Zakariyyā is not the leader of the believers in Ḥadīth?!

“O’ Abū Zakariyyā, you were right and I was wrong! It was not from the narration of Ibn al-Mubārak from Ibn ‘Awn, but from the narration of Abdullāh bin al-Mubārak from someone else.”

And for that, the scholars wrote this among the virtues of Nu’aym. He was made aware of an error and he retracted it!