Al-Bukhārī said, “I saw some people enter upon Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī, and it was said to him, ‘These men are Murjiʾah.’ He replied, ‘Put them out.’ They repented and returned.” (1)

Al-Bukhārī also said, “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal met us while he was heading for Ḥimṣ and we were on our way out of it, and so he missed Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf.” (2)

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿIjlī said, “I asked al-Firyābī, ‘What do you say—who is superior, Abū Bakr or Luqmān?’ He answered, ‘I have never heard this question except from you; Abū Bakr is superior to Luqmān.’” (3)

Al-ʿIjlī continued, “Al-Firyābī is trustworthy; his observance of the Sunnah followed the Kufan pattern.” He then said, “Some of the Baghdadis have stated: ‘Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf erred in one hundred and fifty hadiths narrated from Sufyān.’” (4)

Ibn ʿAdī said, “He alone transmits certain reports from al-Thawrī, and he possesses a large body of hadith from al-Thawrī. In narrations from al-Thawrī he is preferred over many others, such as ʿAbd al-Razzāq and his peers. They used to say, ‘Al-Firyābī knows al-Thawrī better than they do.’ Aḥmad traveled to visit him, but when he neared Caesarea the news of his death reached him, so he turned toward Ḥimṣ.

As far as is apparent, al-Firyābī was truthful; there is no harm in him.” (5)

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Darrajī informed us, from Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar; Saʿīd ibn—