to him. Once he arrived, he remained in his company and said, “I have never seen the like of this.”

Muhammad ibn Ayyub ibn al-Darīs narrated: Ahmad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ related to us; I heard al-Shāfiʿī say:

It was asked of Mālik, “Have you seen Abū Ḥanīfah?” He replied, “Yes, I saw a man who, if he argued with you that this very pillar should be turned into gold, he would establish his proof for it.”

Asad ibn ʿAmr reported that Abū Ḥanīfah—may Allah have mercy on him—performed the ʿIshāʾ and Fajr prayers on the same wuḍūʾ (ritual ablution) for forty years.

Bishr ibn al-Walīd transmitted from the judge Abū Yūsuf, who said: “While I was walking with Abū Ḥanīfah, I heard a man say to another, ‘That is Abū Ḥanīfah; he never sleeps at night.’ Abū Ḥanīfah said, ‘By Allah, no one will say of me what I have not done.’ Thereafter he spent the night in prayer, humble entreaty, and supplication.”

It has been reported through two separate chains that Abū Ḥanīfah recited the entire Qurʾān in a single rakʿah (unit of prayer).

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mughīrah said: “I saw Abū Ḥanīfah, an elderly man giving legal verdicts to the people in the mosque of Kūfah, wearing a long black cap on his head.”

Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad said: “Abū Ḥanīfah was handsome of face, dressed with refinement, and fragrant in scent. I once came to him on some business wearing a crimson cloak. He ordered his mule to be saddled and said, ‘Give me your cloak and take mine.’ I did so. When he returned, he said, ‘O Naḍr! You have embarrassed me with your cloak; it is coarse.’ I had bought it for five dinars, and later I saw him wearing a cloak that I valued at thirty dinars.”

Abū Yūsuf said: “Abū Ḥanīfah was of medium build, one of the most handsome in appearance, the most eloquent in speech, the sweetest in tone, and the clearest in conveying what was on his mind.”

Ḥammād ibn Abī Ḥanīfah said: “My father was handsome, with a complexion tinged with brown, good—”