—when life had already reached the collarbones?

Sufyān is, without reservation, a definitive authority, and his narrations appear in every Islamic collection of ḥadith. I have personally obtained many of his high-chain reports (ʿawālī). Indeed, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the grandson of the ḥāfiẓ al-Salafī, possesses a sizeable selection of them: among them the tract entitled “The Part of Ibn ʿUyaynah,” transmitted from him by al-Marwazī; the “Part of ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb” as related by al-ʿAbbādānī; two further tracts of ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb conveyed by his disciple Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿUmar al-Ṭāʾī; the “Thaqafiyyāt”; and other pieces besides.

Those who gathered the ʿawālī of Ibn ʿUyaynah include Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Manda, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim, and, after them, Abū Isḥāq al-Ḥabbāl.

Sufyān—may Allah have mercy on him—was a man devoted to the Sunnah and strict adherence to it.

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: “Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Jawwāz narrated to us; he said: I saw Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah when a man asked him, ‘What do you say concerning the Quran?’ He replied, ‘It is the speech of Allah; it issued from Him and to Him it shall return.’”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī said: “Luwayn narrated to us; he said: It was said to Ibn ʿUyaynah, ‘What of the ḥadiths that speak of the Beatific Vision?’ He answered, ‘They are sound—exactly as we heard them from people we trust and approve.’”

Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqi said: “Aḥmad ibn Naṣr narrated to me; he said: I questioned Ibn ʿUyaynah repeatedly, pressing him until he exclaimed, ‘Let me catch my breath!’ I then asked, ‘What do you say about the ḥadith of ʿAbdullāh from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “Indeed Allah carries the heavens upon a Finger” (1)?’”