ʿAwn ibn Muḥammad al-Kindī said, “I remember al-Karkh in those days: had anyone merely declared, ‘Ibn Abī Dāwūd is a Muslim,’ he would have been put to death.

Then a great fire swept through al-Karkh, the like of which had never been seen. Ibn Abī Dāwūd petitioned al-Muʿtaṣim on behalf of the populace, softened his heart, and the Caliph released five million dirhams (5,000,000) for them. Ibn Abī Dāwūd distributed the entire sum among the people and added a sizeable amount from his own wealth.

After that, I again remember al-Karkh: had anyone dared say, ‘The button on Aḥmad ibn Abī Dāwūd’s cloak is dirty,’ he would have been killed.

When he died, poets mourned him; among their elegies were these lines:
‘The breeze you smell is not musk from his embalming,
but the praise he left behind;
And what you hear is not the creak of the bier,
but sturdy backs that have snapped.’ (1)

During the inquisition Ibn Abī Dāwūd was relentless against Imām Aḥmad, insisting, ‘Commander of the Faithful, put him to death—he is astray and leads others astray!’

ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad related: ‘I heard my father say that Bishr ibn al-Walīd said, “I pressed Aḥmad ibn Abī Dāwūd to repent of his statement that ‘the Quran is created’ three times in a single night, yet each time he went back to it.”’

Al-Khallāl reported: Muḥammad ibn Abī Hārūn told us, from Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Hānīʾ, who said, ‘I attended the ʿĪd prayer with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. A storyteller cried out, “May Allah curse Ibn Abī Dāwūd, and may Allah fill his grave with fire!” Abū ʿAbd Allah remarked, “How useful such men are to the common folk!”’

Ibn Abī Dāwūd had also shown financial kindness to ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī—because they were from the same town and for another reason. When Ibn Abī Dāwūd had grown old and was struck with paralysis, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kinānī visited him (2) and said, ‘I have not…’