Abu Dawud, the compiler of the Sunan, said: “I asked Ahmad ibn Yunus, and he replied, ‘Do not pray behind anyone who claims that the Quran is created; such people are unbelievers.’ (1)

It has reached us that Ahmad ibn Yunus said: “When I returned from Sufyan al-Thawri, I compelled myself to act on the best of what I knew; when I visited Malik ibn Mughawil, I guarded my tongue; when I visited Sharik, I came back with a fully sound mind; and when I visited Mindal ibn ʿAli, my own soul troubled me because of the excellence of his prayer.” (2)

I say: One mark of Ahmad ibn Yunus’s eminence in al-Bukhari’s estimation is that al-Bukhari even transmitted from him through the intermediary of Yusuf ibn Musa.

Al-Bukhari also said: “He died in the month of Rabiʿ al-Akhir in the year 227 AH.” (3)

Ibn Abi ʿUmar informed us, saying: ʿUmar ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Baqi informed us; Abu Muhammad al-Jawhari informed us; Abuʾl-Faḍl ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman informed us; Ibrahim ibn Sharik al-Asadi narrated to us; Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Yunus narrated to us; Abu Bakr ibn ʿAyyash narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Murrah, from Abuʾl-Ahwas, from ʿAbd Allah, who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “I absolve myself from the intimate friendship of every close companion; and had I been permitted to take an intimate friend, I would certainly have taken Abu Bakr as my intimate friend.”

This is a sound (ṣaḥīḥ) hadith with a Kufan chain of transmission.

It was also narrated by the two Sufyans and by Wakiʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ from al-Aʿmash.

It is recorded by Muslim (4), al-Nasaʾi, and Ibn Majah.