وَحَدَّثَنَا عَمْرُو بْنُ عَلِيٍّ أَبُو حَفْصٍ، قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ يَحْيَى بْنَ سَعِيدٍ، قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ سُفْيَانَ الثَّوْرِيَّ وَشُعْبَةَ وَمَالِكًا وَابْنَ عُيَيْنَةَ عَنِ الرَّجُلِ لَا يَكُونُ ثَبْتًا فِي الْحَدِيثِ فَيَأْتِينِي الرَّجُلُ فَيَسْأَلُنِي عَنْهُ. قَالُوا: أَخْبِرْ عَنْهُ أَنَّهُ لَيْسَ بِثَبْتٍ.
Translation: ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī, Abū Ḥafṣ, narrated to us: “I heard Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd say: I asked Sufyān al-Thawrī, Shuʿbah, Mālik and Ibn ʿUyaynah about a man who is not firmly reliable (thabt) in hadith: someone comes to me and asks about him [what should I say]? They said, ‘Inform him that the man is not thabt.’”
Thabt concerns sound retention and transmission; lacking that quality does not automatically make a person a deliberate liar. The inquirer needs the relevant appraisal, but the scope of criticism must not exceed the evidence: “not firmly reliable” is not interchangeable with “fabricator.”