his side, for he will not loosen a knot without my fastening it, nor fasten a knot without my loosening it.

He replied, “Ibn ʿAbbās, then what am I to do? The trouble comes to me from my own companions: their resolve has slackened and they have grown weary. Here is al-Ashʿath saying, ‘There must never be two men of Muḍar in command!’” So I excused ʿAlī. (1)

Al-Wāqidī reports: Ibn Abī al-Zinād narrated to us, from his father, from ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿAbdullāh, who said:
“Ibn ʿAbbās surpassed the people in a number of qualities: knowledge of what had gone before, juristic discernment in matters that needed his opinion, forbearance, noble lineage, and generosity. I have never seen anyone better versed in the earlier hadith of the Messenger of Allah, nor in the rulings of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān, nor anyone better informed about past events, nor with a keener judgement when judgement was required. We would sit with him, and he would spend an entire evening recounting the military campaigns, another whole evening on genealogy, and yet another whole evening on poetry.” (2)

Ibn Jurayj relates—on the authority of Ṭāwūs—who said, “I have not seen anyone more scrupulous than Ibn ʿUmar, nor anyone more knowledgeable than Ibn ʿAbbās.” (3)

Mujāhid said, “I have never seen anyone like Ibn ʿAbbās; the day he died he was the scholar (ḥabr) of this community.” (4)

Al-Aʿmash, from Mujāhid, said: “Ibn ʿAbbās used to be called ‘the Sea’ on account of the vastness of his knowledge.” (5)

Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, said: “I never heard a legal verdict more excellent than the verdict of Ibn—”