hadith about which I am never asked. (1)

I say: This was because he reported an extraordinary amount from the Syrian traditionists—namely Ibn ʿAyyāsh and Baqiyyah—and the latter had even stayed with him. A sound audition of those narrations from their pupils was only secured in the days of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and his contemporaries.

Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād said: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh being asked, ‘Does Yazīd ibn Hārūn possess fiqh?’ He replied, ‘Yes indeed; how sharp-witted, understanding, and perceptive he was! (2)’”

Aḥmad ibn Sinān al-Qaṭṭān said: “We have never seen a scholar whose prayer was better than that of Yazīd ibn Hārūn; he never slackened in worship, night or day. (3)”

Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī stated: “Yazīd is reliable, an imām; one does not even ask about someone of his stature. (4)”

ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn narrated from Hushaym, who said: “In the two garrison towns there is no one like Yazīd ibn Hārūn. (5)”

Muʾammal ibn Yahāb said: “I heard Yazīd ibn Hārūn say, ‘I have never practiced tadlīs in a hadith except in a single report from ʿAwf al-Aʿrābī, and no blessing ever came to me through it.’ (6)”

ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī reported: “I and Yazīd ibn Hārūn were with Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ. As for Yazīd, whenever he finished the late-night (ʿatamah) prayer, he would remain standing until he performed the dawn prayer.”