and I have come across a Qur’anic legal opinion he issued that points to goodness and is well argued, although it diverges from the school of Abū al-Ḥasan (1). Perhaps al-Qifṭī intended by his remark that he was Hanbalī in creed—an assertion whose very repetition is unseemly, for anyone in this community who seeks the truth, Allah will forgive him. May Allah protect us from the whims of passion and the impulses of the ego.

Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf said: “I met al-Kindī, and debates took place between us. He was an impressive, sharp-witted elder, well-to-do, and enjoyed a measure of influence with the authorities, yet he was self-admiring and could be hurtful to his companions.”

I say: His offense toward this narrator lay in calling him “the Mill.”

He continued: “We held several discussions, and Allah enabled me to prevail over him in many issues; thereafter I let him be.”

Among al-Sakhāwī’s poetry about him:
“In ʿAmr’s time there was none like him,
and so is al-Kindī in these latter days;
They are Zayd and ʿAmr indeed—
for grammar was built upon Zayd and ʿAmr.”

And Abū Shujāʿ ibn al-Dahhān said of him:
“O Zayd, may my Lord increase you in His gifts—
a grace that even hope cannot attain!
May Allah never alter the state He has granted you
so long as grammarians discuss ḥāl and badal.
Among all who know grammar you are most deserving of it;
is it not by your very name that the example is struck?”