Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb said, “Those who narrated from him include Ibrāhīm ibn Abī ʿAbla, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and many others; the last of them to die was al-Haytham ibn Sahl al-Tustarī.

Muḥammad ibn Muṣaffā reported—Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd told us: ‘I have never seen anyone in Iraq like Ḥammād ibn Zayd.’

Khalaf ibn Hishām al-Bazzār remarked, ‘The mudallis is someone who parades what he has not been given.’

I say: such a person falls under the Almighty’s words, “They love to be praised for what they have not done” (Āl ʿImrān 188).

I also say: tadlīs contains an element of deceit and a failure to advise the ummah sincerely—especially when a weak report is disguised so as to appear sound. That is never permissible, unlike the remaining categories of tadlīs. How apt are the words of ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn Saʿīd: “Tadlīs (1) is disgrace.”

A group of transmitters heard Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb say, “I heard Ḥammād ibn Zayd, on the verse, ‘Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet’ (al-Ḥujurāt 2), declare: ‘I consider raising one’s voice over him after his death the same as raising it over him during his life. When his hadith is read you must listen in silence, just as you listen to the Quran, Yaʿmur (2).’”

Sulaymān ibn Ayyūb, the associate of al-Baṣrī—and he is reliable—narrated, “I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī say, ‘I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable than Ḥammād ibn Zayd—neither Sufyān nor Mālik.’”

Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Ṭabbāʿ said, “I have never seen anyone more intelligent than Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”

Muḥammad ibn Wazīr al-Wāsiṭī related, “I heard Yazīd ibn Hārūn say: ‘I asked Ḥammād ibn Zayd, “Has Allah mentioned the people of hadith in the Quran?” He replied, “Indeed. Allah, Exalted is He, says: ‘If only a group from every community would go forth…’—the verse (3).”’”