Aḥmad ibn al-Furāt said, “I have never seen anyone transmit more material from Shuʿbah than Abū Dāwūd. I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about him and he replied, ‘Reliable, truthful.’ I remarked, ‘But he does make mistakes.’ He answered, ‘They may be overlooked in his case.’ (1)

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related: “I asked Ibn Maʿīn about the students of Shuʿbah. I said, ‘Which of them is dearer to you—Abū Dāwūd or ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī?’ He replied, ‘Abū Dāwūd is better acquainted with him.’ ʿUthmān al-Dārimī then added, ‘ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is dearer to us in every respect, but Abū Dāwūd has narrated more from Shuʿbah.’ (2)

Al-ʿIjlī said, ‘Abū Dāwūd is reliable and possessed of a prodigious memory. I set out to meet him, but he died one day before I arrived.’

Al-Nasāʾī said, ‘Reliable—among the most truthful of people in speech.’ (3)

Ibn ʿAdī said, ‘Reliable, though he does make mistakes.’ He then added, ‘To me and to others he is nothing but keen-sighted and firmly grounded.’ (4)

Ibn Saʿd said, ‘Reliable and prolific in ḥadīth; he would occasionally err. He died in Basra in the year 203 AH, at the age of seventy-two.’ (5)

Khalīfah said, ‘He passed away in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 204 AH.’ (6)

I say: al-Bukhārī cited him as supporting evidence in his Ṣaḥīḥ. (7)