Al-Layth transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, who said, “No one still possesses the amount of knowledge that Ibn Shihāb possesses.”
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said, “Maʿmar narrated to us, from a man, that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz declared, ‘Hold fast to this Ibn Shihāb, for you will never meet anyone more knowledgeable of the Sunna of earlier generations than he.’ ”
Saʿīd ibn Bashīr related from Qatādah: “No one remains who is more learned in the earlier Sunna than Ibn Shihāb—and one other,” as though he meant himself.
Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “I heard Makḥūl say, ‘No one alive is more versed in the earlier Sunna than Ibn Shihāb.’ ”
Wuhayb reported, “I heard Ayyūb say, ‘I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable than al-Zuhrī!’ Sakhr ibn Juwayriyah asked him, ‘Not even al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī?’ He replied, ‘I have seen no one more knowledgeable than al-Zuhrī.’ ”
Al-Walīd ibn Muslim said, “I heard Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz remark, ‘He was nothing but an ocean.’ I also heard Makḥūl say, ‘Ibn Shihāb is the most learned of people.’ ”
Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “I heard Abū Bakr al-Hudhalī—who had sat with al-Ḥasan [al-Baṣrī] and Ibn Sīrīn—affirm, ‘I have never seen anyone like this man,’ meaning al-Zuhrī.”
Al-ʿAdanī reported that Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “On the day al-Zuhrī died, people believed that no one was more knowledgeable of the Sunna than he.”
Baqiyyah narrated from Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah that it was said to Makḥūl, “Who is the most learned person you have met?” He answered, “Ibn Shihāb.” They asked, “Then who?” He replied, “Ibn Shihāb.” They said, “And then who?” He said, “Ibn Shihāb.”
Ibn al-Qāsim stated, “I heard Mālik say, ‘Ibn Shihāb remains, and among the people he has no equal.’ ”
Maʿmar remarked, “Within his own circle, al-Zuhrī was like al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah among his contemporaries.”
Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl said, “I was present with Wuhayb, Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal and others when they mentioned al-Zuhrī, and they could find no one to compare with him except al-Shaʿbī.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “Four men issued legal verdicts: al-Ḥakam, Ḥammād, Qatādah and al-Zuhrī—and, in my judgment, al-Zuhrī was the most proficient in jurisprudence among them.”