Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah said, “He was trustworthy, firmly established, his transcripts were accurate. He affirmed qadar (predestination), and the bulk of his narrations were from ʿAbd al-Wārith.” (1)

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī remarked, “I copied ʿAbd al-Wārith’s books from his son ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, and I would very much like to copy them from Abū Maʿmar as well.” (2)

I say: ʿAlī could make such a statement even though he had also met ʿAbd al-Wārith himself and heard a number of hadiths directly from him.

Abū Dāwūd said, “It reached me that ʿAlī declared, ‘Abū Maʿmar’s transmission from ʿAbd al-Wārith is dearer to me than ʿAbd al-Wārith’s own narration from his teachers.’” (3)

Abū Dāwūd then added, “I heard Abū Maʿmar say to Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, ‘A certain shaykh has copied from me the Kitāb al-Ḥurūf (Book of Letters).’” He continued, “al-Aruzzi would not relate from Abū Maʿmar because of his stance on qadar; he feared its effect on him.” (4)

Abū Dāwūd also said, “He never spoke publicly about the matter, and time and again he proved to be more reliable than ʿAbd al-Ṣamad.” (5)

I say: By ‘al-Ḥurūf’ he meant the ḥarf—the Qurʾānic reading—of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ. ʿAbd al-Wārith had recited that reading to Abū ʿAmr and mastered it, and Abū Maʿmar al-Muqʿad learned it from him.

Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said, “Abū Maʿmar is trustworthy; he holds the doctrine of qadar.” (6)

Abū Ḥātim said, “He is truthful, precise, and strong in hadith, except that he did not have a strong memory,”