and the reports of Abān al-ʿAṭṭār, which he could rattle off with striking fluency. He is dearer to us than Ibn Kathīr, for Ibn Kathīr—meaning Muḥammad—did not possess firm memorisation, although he was otherwise sound. (1)

Naṣr ibn ʿAlī said: I heard Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm say, “Once I was sitting with Shuʿbah reviewing the transmissions of Khālid ibn Qays, and he remarked, ‘You have almost met Abū Hurayrah!’—speaking by way of hyperbole. (2)

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿIjlī said: Muslim lived in Basra in a large house with only his elderly sister. Whenever the hadith scholars wished to provoke him, they would say, ‘Your sister is a Qadarī.’ He would reply, ‘No—by Allah—she affirms predestination.’ He was trustworthy, lost his sight toward the end of his life, and narrated from seventy women. (3)

Abū Zurʿah said: I heard Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm declare, ‘I have never engaged in intercourse, whether lawful or unlawful,’ and he was then a little over eighty years old. (4)

Abū Ḥātim said: ‘He had no need for it—that is, sexual relations—and he was reliable and truthful.’ (5)

He died in Ṣafar of the year 222 AH, when he was in his tenth decade—may Allah have mercy on him. (6)