Al-Walid ibn Muslim reported, through Salim al-Khayyat, who said, “I heard al-Hasan and Ibn Sirin both saying, ‘We heard Abu Hurayrah …,’ and then he related a hadith.” Salim is weak.

Al-Hasan—despite his eminence—practiced tadlis, and his mursal reports are not particularly strong. He did not pursue hadith study in his youth; he frequently joined military expeditions and later served as the secretary of the governor of Khurasan, al-Rabiʿ ibn Ziyad.

Sulayman al-Taymi said, “Al-Hasan used to campaign on the frontier. The mufti of Basra was Jabir ibn Zayd Abu Shaʿthaʾ; when al-Hasan arrived, he became the one issuing legal opinions.”

Muhammad ibn Saʿd (1) said: “Al-Hasan—may Allah have mercy on him—was comprehensive in knowledge, distinguished, a jurist, trustworthy, an authority, reliable, devout, ascetic, profoundly learned, eloquent, handsome, and dignified; yet any mursal narration of his is not a decisive proof.”

Al-Asmaʿi related from his father: “I have never seen a forearm broader than that of al-Hasan al-Basri; it measured a hand-span across.”

I say: He was a man of perfect build, pleasing features, and radiant presence, and he ranked among the celebrated brave.

Damrah ibn Rabiʿah, narrating from al-Asbagh ibn Zayd, who heard al-ʿAwwam ibn Hawshab, said, “I can liken al-Hasan only to a prophet.”

Abu Burdah likewise said, “I have never seen anyone who more closely resembled the Companions of Muhammad ﷺ than he did.” (2)