Ibn Ḥibbān said, “He was a ḥāfiẓ, precise in his transmission; yet he espoused irjāʾ and was reprehensible.”
Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd remarked, “We used to patch up the ḥadith in the presence of al-Aʿmash; once we went out, no one preserved his narrations better than Abu Muʿāwiyah.”
Hārūn al-Rashīd venerated and honoured Abu Muʿāwiyah. It is related that Abu Muʿāwiyah once ate with him; when he washed his hands, al-Rashīd himself poured the water and said, “Do you know, Abu Muʿāwiyah, who is serving you?” He then presented him with a large amount of gold.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr said, “Abu Muʿāwiyah died in 194 AH.” ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and others said, “He died in 195 AH,” and some added, “in the month of Ṣafar—or at the beginning of Rabīʿ al-Awwal.”
Abu al-Ghanāʾim ibn Maḥāsin informed us; my grandfather ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Naṣr al-Qāḍī informed us; ʿĪsā ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī told us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā told us; Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaffār informed us; Saʿdān ibn Naṣr narrated to us; Abu Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, from ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal and from Ibn Sīrīn, from Tamīm al-Dārī, that he recited the entire Quran in a single rakʿah (1).
ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Khalaf, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us