ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qawārīrī said, “The best of the shaykhs I have ever met are Bishr ibn Manṣūr, al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, ʿAwn ibn Maʿmar, and Ḥamzah ibn Najīḥ.”

I say: ʿAwn and Ḥamzah are scarcely known; both were devoted worshippers.

Al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl reported: “I heard Hārūn al-Rashīd say, ‘Among scholars I have never seen anyone more imposing than Mālik, nor anyone more scrupulous than al-Fuḍayl.’”

Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī narrated—from al-Haytham ibn Jamīl—that he heard Sharīk say, “Every community has, in its own time, someone who stands as an authoritative proof, and al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ is the proof for the people of his age.”

A young man rose from al-Haytham’s gathering, and when he disappeared from view al-Haytham said, “If that youth lives on, he will be the proof of his generation.”

Someone asked, “Who was the youth?” He replied, “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.”

ʿAbd al-Ṣamad Mardawayh the goldsmith said: Ibn al-Mubārak told me, “Al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ was sincere with Allah, so Allah caused wisdom to flow from his tongue. Al-Fuḍayl is one whose knowledge truly benefited him.”

Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAffān said: I heard Ibn al-Mubārak say to Abū Maryam the judge, “No one of the abdāl (spiritual substitutes) remains in the Hijaz except al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ and his son ʿAlī—ʿAlī surpasses all in fearful awe—no one remains in Syria except Yūsuf ibn Asbāṭ and Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Aswad, and in Khurasan there remains only an old weaver named Maʿdān.”

Abū Bakr al-Maqārīḍī, the exhorter, said: I heard Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith say, “There are ten men who consumed only what is lawful; nothing entered their stomachs but lawfully earned food, even if they had to subsist on dust and ashes.”

I asked, “Who are they, Abū Naṣr?” He replied, “Sufyān, and Ibrāhīm ibn ….”