and whose narration contradicts the Sunnah?!

Sufyān’s face flushed. Al-Awzāʿī said, “It seems you disliked what I said?”

“Yes,” he replied.

Al-Awzāʿī responded, “Come with me to the Maqām so that each of us may invoke Allah to show which of us is upon the truth.”

Sufyān smiled when he saw how heated al-Awzāʿī had become.

ʿAlī ibn Bakkār related: I heard Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī say, “I have never seen the like of al-Awzāʿī and al-Thawrī. Al-Awzāʿī was a man for the masses, whereas al-Thawrī was a man concerned only with himself. If I were given the choice on behalf of this ummah, I would select al-Awzāʿī for it”—meaning, for the caliphate.

ʿAlī ibn Bakkār added, “Were the choice mine for this ummah, I would select Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī.”

Al-Khuraibī said, “Al-Awzāʿī was the best man of his age.”

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād transmitted from Ibn al-Mubārak, who said, “If someone told me, ‘Choose for this ummah,’ I would choose Sufyān al-Thawrī and al-Awzāʿī. And if I had to pick only one of the two, I would choose al-Awzāʿī, because he is the gentler of the two men.”

Abū Usāmah expressed the same sentiment.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “In their times, the people (of knowledge) were essentially four: Ḥammād ibn Zayd in Basra, al-Thawrī in Kūfa, Mālik in the Ḥijāz, and al-Awzāʿī in Syria.”

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “Al-Awzāʿī’s transmissions from Yaḥyā are inconsistent.”

Al-Rabīʿ al-Murādī reported: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, “I have never seen anyone whose legal reasoning so closely matches his hadith as al-Awzāʿī.”

Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī narrated: I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “What do you say about Mālik?” He answered, “Sound hadith, but weak opinion.”

I said, “And al-Awzāʿī?” He replied, “Weak hadith and weak opinion.”

I asked, “And al-Shāfiʿī?” He said, “Sound hadith and sound opinion.”

I then asked, “And so-and-so?” He answered, “Neither opinion nor hadith.”