Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī said: “Narrating to us was the true Imām of the Muslims, the genuine Shaykh al-Islām, Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī.” He then related an anecdote (1).

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Mālikī said: “Abū ʿUthmān is among those to whom the leading scholars bore witness of perfection in memorization and Qurʾān commentary” (2).

ʿAbd al-Ghāfir stated in al-Siyāq (3): “The teacher Abū ʿUthmān Ismāʿīl al-Ṣābūnī, Shaykh al-Islām, exegete, ḥadīth scholar, and preacher, was unmatched in his era in his craft. He preached to the Muslims for seventy years, and he delivered the khuṭbah and led the prayers in the congregational mosque for roughly twenty years. He was a ḥāfiẓ—widely traveled in search of narrations and prolific in authorship—keenly devoted to knowledge. He attended scholarly sessions in Nishapur, Herat, Sarakhs, the Ḥijāz, Syria, and the Jibāl region, and he taught in Khurāsān, India, Jurjān, Syria, the frontier towns, the Ḥijāz, and Jerusalem. He was granted honor and prestige in both religion and worldly life, served as an adornment to his city, and was accepted by friend and foe alike. Consensus held that he was without equal: a sword of the Sunnah and a crusher of innovation.

“His father, Imām Abū Naṣr, was one of the leading preachers of Nishapur, but he was murdered for his creed. Consequently, his son—only nine (4) years old—was placed in the preaching chair; the leading scholars of the time attended his gathering, and he began to take…"