Rabiʿah ibn Yazīd al-Qaṣīr said, “ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān paused in his recitation, whereupon he turned to Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah and said, ‘Why did you not prompt me?’” (1)

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAwn, whenever he named someone who impressed him, would mention Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah. (2)

Al-Aṣmaʿī relates: I heard Ibn ʿAwn say, “I have seen three men the like of whom I have never seen: Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn in Iraq, al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad in the Ḥijāz, and Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah in Syria.” (3)

Al-Anṣārī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAwn, said, “Ibrāhīm, al-Shaʿbī, and al-Ḥasan would report a hadith according to its meaning, whereas al-Qāsim, Ibn Sīrīn, and Rajāʾ would repeat the hadith word for word.” (4)

Ḍamrah narrates from Rajāʾ ibn Abī Salamah: “Yazīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik used to allot thirty dinars each month to Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah. When Hishām became caliph he said, ‘This is not sound policy,’ and cut it off. Hishām then saw his father in a dream, and his father reproached him for doing so; consequently, he reinstated the stipend.” (5)

I say: Hishām carried some resentment toward him (6) because, at the death of his brother Sulaymān, Rajāʾ had worked to postpone his accession and had transferred the caliphate to their cousin ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.

Rajāʾ ibn Abī Salamah said: “Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah once saw a man nodding off after