Usama ibn Zayd relates—through Nafiʿ—that Ibn ʿUmar once mentioned Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and said, “By Allah, he is one of the muftis.”

Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and more than one other authority, declared: “The mursal reports of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab are sound.”

Qatadah, Makḥūl, al-Zuhri and others stated—these are Qatadah’s very words—“I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable than Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab.”

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “Among the Successors I know no one whose knowledge is broader than that of Ibn al-Musayyab; to me he is the greatest of the Successors.”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥarmalah reported: “I heard Ibn al-Musayyab say, ‘I have performed forty pilgrimages.’”

Yahya ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī said, “Saʿīd often used to say in his gathering: Allahumma sallim, sallim—‘O Allah, grant safety, grant safety.’” (1)

Maʿn said, “I heard Mālik relate that Ibn al-Musayyab declared, ‘I would travel for days and nights in search of a single hadith.’” (2)

Ibn ʿUyaynah narrates—through Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭarīf, from Ḥumayd ibn Yaʿqūb—that he heard Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab say, “I heard a statement from ʿUmar which no one else alive has heard besides me.” (3)

Abu Isḥāq al-Shaybānī transmits—from Bukayr ibn al-Akhnas—from Saʿīd ibn