steadfast—more reliable than Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, more exacting than Wakīʿ, and he even read his collection back to Sufyān. (1)

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī said, “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān dictated to me twenty thousand ḥadiths straight from memory.”

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Saʿīd reported: “I heard Ibn Mahdī say, ‘A man is not permitted to be an imām until he can distinguish what is sound from what is unsound.’”

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī remarked, “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s knowledge of ḥadith was like magic.” (2)

Abū ʿUbayd said, “I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān declare, ‘I never abandoned a man’s ḥadith without first praying for him and mentioning him by name.’”

Ibrāhīm ibn Ziyād Sabalān (3) recounted: “I asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, ‘What is your view of someone who says, “The Quran is created”?’ He replied, ‘If I had authority, I would station myself on the bridge; no one would pass without my asking him. If he said, “Created,” I would strike off his head and throw him into the water.’”

Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī said, “Wakīʿ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān met in the Sacred Precinct after the ʿIshāʾ prayer and remained standing there until they heard the call to the dawn prayer.”

It is also related from Ibn Mahdī that he said, “Were it not that I loathe disobedience to Allah, I would have wished …”