He transmitted only a small number of reports. Among those who narrated from him were Hisham ibn Hassan, Azhar ibn Sinan, Ismaʿil ibn Muslim al-ʿAbdi, Sufyan al-Thawri, Maʿmar, Hammad ibn Salamah, Salam ibn Abi Mutiʿ, Salih al-Murri, Hammad ibn Zayd, Jaʿfar ibn Sulayman al-Dubaʿi, Nuh ibn Qays, Salam the reciter, and Muhammad ibn al-Fadl ibn ʿAtiyyah.
ʿAli ibn al-Madini said, “He has fifteen hadiths to his name.”
Ahmad al-ʿIjli remarked, “Reliable, devout, righteous.”
Al-Daraqutni said, “Reliable, but afflicted with weak transmitters.”
Ibn Shawdhab stated, “Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ displayed no ostentatious worship, and legal rulings were referred to others; yet whenever people asked, ‘Who is the best person in Basra?’ the answer was, ‘Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ.’”
Al-Asmaʿi related that Sulayman al-Taymi said, “There is no one whose record of deeds I would rather meet Allah with than that of Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ.”
Muʿtamir narrated from his father, “I have never seen anyone more humble before Allah than Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ.”
Jaʿfar ibn Sulayman said, “Whenever I felt hardness in my heart, I would go out early and look at Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ’s face; he looked like a bereaved mother.”
Hammad ibn Zayd recounted that a man once said to Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ, “Advise me.”
He replied, “I advise you to be a king in this world and the next.”
The man asked, “How?”
He said, “Renounce the world.”
He also said, “Glad tidings to the person who finds supper but not lunch, or finds lunch but not supper, while Allah is pleased with him.”
Ibn Shawdhab reported: The governor of Basra distributed stipends among its Qur’an-reciters and sent some to Malik ibn Dinar, who accepted them. Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ asked him, “You accepted their gifts?”
He replied, “Ask my companions.”
They said, “O Abu Bakr, he bought slaves with the money and set them free.”
Ibn Wasiʿ said, “I beseech you by Allah: is your heart right now as it used to be?”
Malik answered, “By Allah, no. Malik is only a donkey; the one who truly worships Allah is someone like Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ.”
Ibn ʿUyaynah reported that Muhammad ibn Wasiʿ said, “If sins had an odor, no one would sit with me.”