ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Najdah reported: “Baqiyyah narrated to us, from Arṭāʾah ibn al-Mundhir, who said that Ruzayq Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Alhānī told me:
ʿAmr ibn al-Aswad came to Medina. Ibn ʿUmar saw him praying and said, ‘Whoever would like to behold the person whose prayer most closely resembles the prayer of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, let him look at this man.’
He then sent him hospitality provisions—food, fodder for his mount, and some money. ʿAmr accepted the food and fodder but returned the money.
Ahmad records in his Musnad: Abū al-Yamān narrated to us; Abū Bakr ibn Abī Maryam narrated to us, from Ḍamrah ibn Ḥabīb and Ḥakīm ibn ʿUmayr, who both said:
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb remarked, ‘Whoever wishes to observe the conduct of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, let him observe the conduct of ʿAmr ibn al-Aswad.’ (1)
Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh and Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb transmitted from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Maryam, from Ḍamrah alone, from ʿAmr ibn al-Aswad: that he once passed by ʿUmar.
Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh also related: Shuraḥbīl ibn Muslim narrated to me, from ʿAmr ibn al-Aswad al-ʿAnsī, that he would deliberately refrain from eating to satiety, fearing self-indulgence.
I read to Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq, who informed us that al-Fath ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, Abū Ghālib Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, Abū al-Faḍl al-Urmawī, and Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭarāʾifī all said:
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Muslimah informed us; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Zuhrī narrated to us; Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Firyābī narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Ḥimṣī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from Baḥīr ibn Saʿd (2), from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from ʿAmr ibn al-Aswad al-ʿAnsī:
Whenever he left the mosque he would clasp his right hand over his left. When asked about this he said, ‘I fear that my hand might fall into hypocrisy.’