in his own words, people would have been astonished, for he would say, “Misʿar narrated to us from (ʿIsha).” Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah transmitted this remark from him.

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “Wakīʿ’s memorisation exceeded ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s by a great deal.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported from his father: “Ibn Mahdī commits more vocalisation slips than Wakīʿ, yet he makes fewer substantive errors.”

Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī related: “I heard Aḥmad say, ‘My eyes have never fallen upon anyone like Wakīʿ. He preserves hadith flawlessly, discusses fiqh expertly, and does so with piety and determined effort; moreover, he never speaks ill of anyone.’”

The ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Nīsābūrī said: “I visited Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal after the ordeal and heard him declare, ‘In his day, Wakīʿ was the Imam of the Muslims.’”

Salm ibn Junādah said, “I kept company with Wakīʿ for seven years. I never saw him spit, touch a pebble, or fidget in any gathering. Whenever I saw him he was facing the qiblah, and I never heard him swear by Allah.”

Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj said: “While I was with Wakīʿ a man came and invited him to a wedding. Wakīʿ asked, ‘Will there be nabīdh?’ When the man replied, ‘No,’ he said, ‘We do not attend a wedding where there is no nabīdh.’ The man responded, ‘Then I shall bring some,’ and Wakīʿ got up to go.”

It is also related of Wakīʿ that when a man addressed him harshly, he entered a room, rubbed his face with dust, then came out to the man and said, “Add to Wakīʿ on account of his sin; were it not for that sin you would not have been given power over him.”

Naṣr ibn al-Mughīrah al-Bukhārī said: “I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Shammās say, ‘The most knowledgeable person I have ever seen is Wakīʿ, the strongest memoriser is Ibn al-Mubārak, and the most scrupulous is al-Fuḍayl.’”