حَدَّثَنِي الْفَضْلُ بْنُ سَهْلٍ، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنِي عَفَّانُ بْنُ مُسْلِمٍ، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنَا هَمَّامٌ، قَالَ: قَدِمَ عَلَيْنَا أَبُو دَاوُدَ الْأَعْمَى، فَجَعَلَ يَقُولُ: حَدَّثَنَا الْبَرَاءُ، قَالَ: وَحَدَّثَنَا زَيْدُ بْنُ أَرْقَمَ، فَذَكَرْنَا ذَلِكَ لِقَتَادَةَ فَقَالَ: كَذَبَ، مَا سَمِعَ مِنْهُمْ، إِنَّمَا كَانَ ذَلِكَ سَائِلًا يَتَكَفَّفُ النَّاسَ زَمَنَ طَاعُونِ الْجَارِفِ.
Translation: Al-Faḍl b. Sahl said that ʿAffān b. Muslim narrated to him; ʿAffān said that Hammām narrated to them: “Abū Dāwūd al-Aʿmā came to us and began saying, ‘Al-Barāʾ narrated to us,’ and also, ‘Zayd b. Arqam narrated to us.’ We mentioned this to Qatādah, who said: ‘He lied; he did not hear from them. Rather, he used to beg people for alms during the plague of al-Jārif.’”
The Abū Dāwūd al-Aʿmā named here is identified as Nufayʿ b. al-Ḥārith al-Qaṣṣ. «كَذَبَ، مَا سَمِعَ مِنْهُمْ» is Qatādah’s explicit reported rejection of his hearing claim, not merely an unspecified objection. «يَتَكَفَّفُ النَّاسَ» means begging people; poverty itself is not proof of non-audition. Qatādah is relating known earlier circumstances to the later claim.