a single hadith, ever. Concerning him, Ibn al-Mubarak (1) said:
O seeker of knowledge, go to Ḥammād ibn Zayd;
You will draw from him forbearance and learning—then bind it fast (2).

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable than Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Mālik ibn Anas, and Sufyān al-Thawrī; and in Basra I saw no one more versed in jurisprudence than he—that is, than Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”

Another scholar said, “He is the most distinguished and the most reliable of Ayūb al-Sakhtiyānī’s disciples.”

Ḥammād ibn Zayd himself related: “I kept the company of Ayūb for twenty years.”

Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī said, “I heard Abū ʿĀṣim al-Nabīl say: ‘When Ḥammād ibn Zayd died, I knew of no one in Islam who equalled him in his bearing and dignity—I think he added: and in his noble appearance.’”

I say: His death occurred only a little after Mālik’s, and that is why Abū ʿĀṣim spoke as he did. When Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ heard of Ḥammād ibn Zayd’s passing, he said, “Today the leader of the Muslims has died.”

Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān said, “He was blind, yet had committed all of his hadith to memory.”

I add: He lost his sight only in his final years.