—than Abu Bakr?”
He replied, “Abu Bakr was better than he, but Muʿāwiyah was the more dignified one.”
I asked, “Was he more dignified than ʿUmar (1)? … and so on in the report (2).

Maʿmar narrated—through Hammām ibn Munabbih—that he heard Ibn ʿAbbās say:
“I have never seen a man more fit for sovereignty than Muʿāwiyah. People would come to him as though crossing the spacious sides of a broad valley; he was never narrow-minded, rigid, rough (3), or quick-tempered—the quick-tempered one, he meant, was Ibn al-Zubayr (4).”

Ayyūb reported—on the authority of Abū Qilābah—that Kaʿb ibn Mālik said: “No one will ever wield dominion over this ummah to the extent that Muʿāwiyah did.”

Mujālid narrated—through al-Shaʿbī, from Qabīṣah ibn Jābir—who said:
“I kept company with Muʿāwiyah, and I never saw a man whose forbearance was weightier, whose lapse into ignorance was slower, or whose deliberation was more far-reaching than his (5).”

It is also related that Muʿāwiyah said, “I deem myself above allowing any offence to outweigh my forbearance (6).”

Mujālid further narrated—through al-Shaʿbī—that a man once addressed Muʿāwiyah harshly. Muʿāwiyah said to him, “I warn you about the ruler: his anger is the anger of a child, but his retribution is the retribution of a lion (7).”