had a group of leading imams shun his writings, abandon them, and keep their distance; at one point they were even consigned to the flames. Other scholars, however, devoted themselves to those works, examining them both critically and for benefit, taking from them and taking him to task. They found within them priceless pearls strung together with cheap glass beads: at times they were delighted, at others astonished, and at still other times they mocked his oddities.

In sum, perfection is rare. Everyone’s words may be accepted or rejected—except those of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.

He commanded numerous sciences, excelled in the transmission of knowledge, and was adept in both verse and prose. He possessed religiosity and virtue; his intentions were noble and his compilations beneficial. He renounced high office and remained at home immersed in study. Accordingly, we will neither exaggerate in praising him nor be unjust in criticizing him; the senior scholars before us have already spoken well of him.

Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (1) said: “I came across a book on the Divine Names composed by Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm of al-Andalus that bears witness to the vastness of his memorization and the fluidity of his mind.”

Imām Abū al-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Aḥmad said: “Of all the people of al-Andalus, Ibn Ḥazm was the most comprehensive in the Islamic sciences and the widest in knowledge. Together with his breadth in philology, he had an ample share of eloquence and poetry, and was well versed in biographies and historical reports. His son al-Faḍl informed me that he possessed, in his father Abū Muḥammad’s own handwriting, 400 volumes comprising nearly 80,000 folio pages (2).”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥumaydī (3) said: “Ibn Ḥazm was a master memoriser of hadith and its jurisprudence,”