Al-Firyabī narrated: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyabī told us; my father told us; I heard Sufyān say:

“Some people claim, ‘We speak of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar only in good terms, but ʿAlī was more deserving of the caliphate than the two of them.’ Whoever says that has pronounced Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿAlī, the Emigrants, and the Helpers all to be in error, and I do not know whether—after such a statement—their deeds will ever rise to the heavens.”

Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj said: I heard Ibn Idrīs say:

“In Kūfa I never saw a man more devoted to the Sunnah, and there is no one whose lot I would rather share (1) than that of Sufyān al-Thawrī.”

Zayd ibn Ḥubāb reported: “Sufyān travelled to Ayyūb and Ibn ʿAwn, and thereafter he abandoned Shiʿite leanings.”

Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth said: I asked Sufyān, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh, people are talking extensively about the Mahdī; what is your view of him?” He replied, “If he passes by your door, do not involve yourself with him in any way until the people have agreed upon him.”

Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Sufyān, said:

“The Rāfiḍis have left me alone, yet I dislike even mentioning ʿAlī’s virtues (2).”

Al-Ḥākim said: I heard Abū al-Walīd; al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān narrated to us; Hārūn ibn Ziyād al-Maṣṣīṣī narrated to us: I heard al-Firyabī report:

I heard Sufyān—when a man asked him about someone who reviles Abū Bakr—reply, “He is a disbeliever in the Almighty Allah.” The man asked, “Should we perform the funeral prayer for him?” He answered, “No—no honor is due to him.” People then pressed forward until they stood between me and Sufyān. I asked the one nearest to him, “What did he say?” Some objected, “But the man professes, ‘There is no god but Allah’; what should we do with him?” Sufyān said, “Do not touch him with your hands; carry him on planks of wood until you place him in his grave.”