Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal mentioned him on one occasion, declared him reliable, and said: “He adopted a praiseworthy stance during the ordeal (miḥna).”
Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ reported: Ismāʿīl said to me, “Today in Madinah there is no one who has read to Nāfiʿ except me.”
Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād said: I heard Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal. He was asked, “Who is in Madinah today?” He replied, “Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways—he is a scholar, a man of abundant knowledge,” or words to that effect.
Abū Bakr al-Burqānī said: I asked al-Dāraqutnī, “Why did al-Nasāʾī grade Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways as weak?”
He answered, “Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Hāshimī—an authority whom al-Nasāʾī held in special regard—told me:
‘Al-Nasāʾī related to me that Salamah ibn Shabīb told him, on the authority of Ismāʿīl…’ Then al-Nasāʾī hesitated, and I kept urging him to recount the story until he said:
‘Salamah told me, “I heard Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways say: ‘I would sometimes fabricate a ḥadīth for the people of Madinah whenever they differed over something among themselves.’”’”
Abū Bakr al-Burqānī continued: I asked al-Dāraqutnī, “Who conveyed this to you from Ibn Mūsā?” He replied, “The minister—that is, Ibn Ḥinzabah—and I copied it from his book.”
Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythamah also transmitted from Yaḥyā that he said, “He is nothing.”
Yaḥyā then said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Hāshimī of Yemen told us:
“I travelled to Yemen with Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways. One day he entered my presence carrying a brocaded garment and said, ‘My wife is thrice divorced if you do not buy this man’s cloth for one hundred dinars.’
So I said to my servant, ‘Weigh it out for him.’ He weighed the money, and the cloth proved to be worth only fifty dinars. Later I asked Ismāʿīl about it and he said, ‘The man gave me twenty dinars from the price.’
I said, ‘That is manifest foolishness.’”