وَحَدَّثَنِي مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ قُهْزَاذَ، مِنْ أَهْلِ مَرْوَ، قَالَ: أَخْبَرَنِي عَلِيُّ بْنُ حُسَيْنِ بْنِ وَاقِدٍ، قَالَ: قَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ الْمُبَارَكِ: قُلْتُ لِسُفْيَانَ الثَّوْرِيِّ: إِنَّ عَبَّادَ بْنَ كَثِيرٍ مَنْ تَعْرِفُ حَالَهُ، وَإِذَا حَدَّثَ جَاءَ بِأَمْرٍ عَظِيمٍ، فَتَرَى أَنْ أَقُولَ لِلنَّاسِ: لَا تَأْخُذُوا عَنْهُ؟ قَالَ سُفْيَانُ: بَلَى. قَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ: فَكُنْتُ إِذَا كُنْتُ فِي مَجْلِسٍ ذُكِرَ فِيهِ عَبَّادٌ أَثْنَيْتُ عَلَيْهِ فِي دِينِهِ وَأَقُولُ: لَا تَأْخُذُوا عَنْهُ.
Translation: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Quhzādh, a resident of Marw, narrated to me: “ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid informed me that ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak said: I said to Sufyān al-Thawrī, ‘You know the condition of ʿAbbād ibn Kathīr. Whenever he relates hadith, he comes out with something grave. Do you think I should tell people not to take reports from him?’ Sufyān replied, ‘Yes.’ ʿAbd Allāh said: So whenever I was in a gathering in which ʿAbbād was mentioned, I would praise him for his religious devotion and say, ‘Do not take hadith from him.’”
Praising someone’s religious conduct can coexist with rejecting the reliability of his narration. Personal virtue does not repair a deficiency in hadith precision; criticism of that deficiency also need not erase every virtue.