al-Awzāʿī weeping at all, nor laughing so broadly that his molars showed; he would merely smile from time to time—as the hadith relates (1)—and he spent the night in prayer, reciting the Quran, and weeping.

One of my brothers from Beirut told me that his mother used to enter al-Awzāʿī’s house and examine the place where he prayed; she would find it damp with his tears from the night.

Abū Mushir related: Muḥammad ibn al-Awzāʿī narrated to me, saying, “My father told me, ‘My son, if we were to accept from people everything they present to us, we would soon become insignificant in their eyes.’ ”

ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd said: My father narrated to us: I heard al-Awzāʿī say, “Hold fast to the legacy of those who have gone before, even if people abandon you; and beware of the opinions of men, even if they adorn them for you with fine speech. The matter will become clear, and you will be upon a straight path.”

Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd reported: al-Awzāʿī said to me, “O Baqiyyah, mention none of the Companions of your Prophet except with good. O Baqiyyah, knowledge is only what has come from the Companions of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and whatever has not come from them is not knowledge.”

Baqiyyah and Walīd ibn Mazīd likewise reported that al-Awzāʿī said, “Love for both ʿAlī and ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with them—coexists only in the heart of a believer.”

The judge ʿAbd al-Wāsiʿ al-Shāfiʿī, together with several others, wrote to me on the authority of Abū al-Fatḥ al-Mandaʾī (2): ʿUbayd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī informed us; my grandfather also informed us in his book Al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt (3); Abū ʿAbd Allah