I say: Along with his expertise in knowledge and the precedence in practice you have already seen, al-Awzaʿī—may Allah have mercy on him—was also a leading master of epistolary style.

Al-Walīd ibn Mazyad reported: Al-Awzaʿī was asked about khushūʿ (humble concentration) in the prayer. He answered, “It means lowering the gaze, folding one’s wings in humility, and having a tender heart—that is, sorrow and fear.”

He was also questioned about an imam who, out of forgetfulness, omitted a prostration (sajda) until he had risen and the worshippers had dispersed. He replied, “Each person should perform a single prostration on his own, wherever he is.”

I heard al-Awzaʿī say—and I asked him, “Who is the fool (1)?” He replied, “The one who is blind to evil yet clear-sighted with respect to good.”

Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us from al-Walīd who said: I heard al-Awzaʿī say, “Whatever the reaper’s hand misses or the picker’s hand leaves behind, the owner of the crop has no claim to it; it belongs only to the passer-by and the traveller in need.”

Abū Mushir related from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: Al-Awzaʿī was appointed judge by Yazīd ibn al-Walīd. He held court for one session, then asked to be relieved, and his request was granted. Yazīd then appointed Ibn Abī Laylā al-Ghassānī, who remained in office until he was killed in al-Ghūṭa.

Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh said, “If al-Thawrī, al-Awzaʿī, and Mālik concur on a matter, that matter is a sunnah.”

I respond: Rather, the sunnah is what the Prophet ﷺ and the rightly guided caliphs after him established, and ijmāʿ (consensus) is what the scholars of the ummah, past and present, have unanimously agreed upon—whether through explicit or tacit consensus. Whoever from the Successors (tābiʿīn) or their followers departs from that consensus on the basis of his own ijtihād may be excused; but one who contradicts those three great imams just mentioned is not to be called