Al-Samʿānī said: I heard ʿAbd al-Rashīd ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭabarī in Marw say, “Al-Farāwī is worth a thousand narrators.”

His father, al-Faḍl ibn Aḥmad, related from the amir Abū al-Ḥasan al-Samḥūrī that, in the year 53, he saw the Prophet ﷺ saying to my son Muḥammad, “I have placed you in the circle (lit. ‘necklace’) of the session.”

Ibn ʿAsākir remarked, “My second journey was to al-Farāwī. People from every direction sought him out because he combined an elevated chain of transmission, abundant knowledge, sound creed, fine manners, and total dedication to the student.” (1)

Al-Samʿānī also said: I heard al-Farāwī recount, “We were listening to the Musnad of Abū ʿAwana from al-Qushayrī. A certain dignitary used to attend and sit beside the shaykh. One day the dignitary was absent while the shaykh sat there in a coarse black shirt and a small turban. I assumed the reading was meant for that grand personage. My father began to read, so I asked, ‘To whom are you reading when the shaykh has not come?’

“He replied, ‘Do you think that man is your shaykh?’

“I said, ‘Yes.’

“He became distressed, uttered the istirjāʿ, and said, ‘My son, your shaykh is this man sitting here.’ Then, for my sake, he started the book again from the very beginning.”

Al-Samʿānī continued: I heard ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Abī Naṣr al-Ṭabasī say, “I read Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim with al-Farāwī seventeen times. He instructed me: ‘Make sure you attend my washing, that you lead the funeral prayer for me in the house, and that you place your tongue in my mouth.’”