—he and his father—when Abū Jahl intercepted them and said, “Where are you two headed?”
They replied, “We have an errand of our own.”
He retorted, “You have come for no other purpose than to reinforce Muḥammad.”
So they were compelled to give him a solemn pledge that they would not add their strength to his. Afterward they went to the Messenger of Allah and informed him of what had happened. (1)

Ibn Jurayj reported: “Abū Ḥarb ibn Abī al-Aswad related to me, from Abū al-Aswad, who said—

—and from a man, from Zādhān: that ʿAlī was asked about Hudhayfah, and he replied, ‘He knew the hypocrites, and he inquired about the thorny matters of religion; if you question him about them, you will find him well-versed in them.’ (2)

Abū ʿAwānah—on the authority of Sulaymān, from Thābit Abū al-Miqdām, from Abū Yaḥyā—reported:
“A man asked Hudhayfah, while I was present, ‘What is hypocrisy?’
He answered, ‘That you profess Islam with your tongue yet fail to act upon it.’

Salām ibn Miskīn, from Ibn Sīrīn, narrated:
“ʿUmar wrote during Hudhayfah’s governorship of al-Madāʾin: ‘Listen to him, obey him, and grant him whatever he asks of you.’ Hudhayfah then left ʿUmar’s presence riding a patched-up donkey, his provisions slung beneath him. When he arrived, the local dihqāns came out to greet him, while he was holding a flat loaf of bread and a strip of meat in his hand. (3)"