وَحَدَّثَنِي مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ رَافِعٍ، وَحَجَّاجُ بْنُ الشَّاعِرِ، قَالَا: حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الرَّزَّاقِ، قَالَ: قَالَ مَعْمَرٌ: مَا رَأَيْتُ أَيُّوبَ اغْتَابَ أَحَدًا قَطُّ إِلَّا عَبْدَ الْكَرِيمِ، يَعْنِي أَبَا أُمَيَّةَ، فَإِنَّهُ ذَكَرَهُ فَقَالَ: رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ، كَانَ غَيْرَ ثِقَةٍ، لَقَدْ سَأَلَنِي عَنْ حَدِيثٍ لِعِكْرِمَةَ، ثُمَّ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ عِكْرِمَةَ.
Translation: Muḥammad b. Rāfiʿ and Ḥajjāj b. al-Shāʿir both narrated from ʿAbd al-Razzāq. Maʿmar said: “I never saw Ayyūb speak ill of anyone behind his back, ever, except ʿAbd al-Karīm—that is, Abū Umayyah. Ayyūb mentioned him and said: ‘May Allah have mercy on him; he was not trustworthy. He asked me about a report of ʿIkrimah, then said, ‘I heard ʿIkrimah.’’” The “me” in Ayyūb’s quoted words is Ayyūb, not the outer narrator Maʿmar.
Ayyūb combines the invocation «رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ» with the specific judgment «غَيْرَ ثِقَةٍ». His concern is that ʿAbd al-Karīm, after asking Ayyūb about a report of ʿIkrimah, claimed direct hearing from ʿIkrimah. This episode supplies evidence for investigating the attributed source; by itself it does not logically rule out every possible earlier audition.