Abu Salamah al-Minqari narrated: Ibn ʿUyaynah related to us, from ʿAmr, who said, “I sat with Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn ʿUmar, Jābir, and Ibn al-Zubayr, yet I never saw anyone whose hadith was more systematically arranged than al-Zuhrī’s.”
Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn ʿAskar said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal remark, “Al-Zuhrī has the finest hadith of all people and the soundest chains of transmission.”
Abu Ḥātim declared, “The most reliable of Anas’s students is al-Zuhrī.”
Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah reported from al-Zuhrī, who said, “I traveled back and forth between the Ḥijāz and Syria for forty-five years, yet not a single hadith was new to me, nor did I find anyone who could bring me something I did not already know.”
Ibn ʿUyaynah narrated from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd: “I heard my father ask al-Zuhrī about issues concerning khulʿ and ilāʾ. Al-Zuhrī replied, ‘I have thirty hadith on that topic; you have not asked me about any of them.’ ”
Abu Ṣāliḥ narrated from al-Layth: “Ibn Shihāb would conclude his discourse with a comprehensive supplication, saying, ‘O Allah, I ask You for every good that Your knowledge encompasses in this world and the Hereafter, and I seek refuge in You from every evil that Your knowledge encompasses in this world and the Hereafter.’ ”
He was one of the most generous people I ever met. He would give, and when nothing remained with him he would borrow from his own slaves, saying, “So-and-so, lend me the sum you know, and I will repay you double, just as you are aware.”
He used to feed the people with tharīd and give them honey to drink. He would stay up late over honey just as drinkers linger over their wine, saying, “Pour for us and relate to us.”
He drank honey frequently and never ate any apples. I heard him weep over the state of knowledge and say, “Knowledge is departing, and so are many of those who used to act upon it.”
I said to him, “Why do you not deposit some of your knowledge with someone you hope will succeed you?”
He answered, “By Allah, no one has spread knowledge as I have, nor borne with it as patiently as I have. We used to sit with Ibn al-Musayyab, and none of us could ask him about anything unless he himself initiated the subject, or a man came who had already been confronted by a particular issue and asked about it.”
Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd reported from his father: “No one, after the Messenger of Allah, was ever seen to have gathered as much knowledge as Ibn Shihāb.”