He went on to say, “So I remarked, ‘This is a shaykh.’ When I arrived in Basra, I found Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī saying, ‘Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir related to us.’
Ghundar said, “From the very first day I engaged in ḥadīth, no one was given precedence in it over Ibn ʿUlayyah.”
Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī said, “Every ḥadīth scholar has made mistakes—except Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah and Bishr ibn al-Muwaḍḍal.”
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Ibn ʿUlayyah was reliable, devout, and scrupulous.”
Yūnus ibn Bukayr said, “I heard Shuʿbah say, ‘Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah is the master of the ḥadīth scholars.’”
ʿAmr ibn Zurārah al-Naysābūrī said, “I accompanied Ibn ʿUlayyah for fourteen years and never once saw him smile.”
I say: There is no praise in that (1); rather, it signals fear and sorrow.
ʿAffān ibn Muslim reported: Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith told us, “We used to liken Ibn ʿUlayyah to Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd.”
Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Harawī said, “I heard Yazīd ibn Hārūn say, ‘I entered Basra and found no one there superior to Ibn ʿUlayyah in ḥadīth.’”
Ziyād ibn Ayyūb said, “I never once saw a book in the possession of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah.”
And he was