“And how could I endure the clouds’ act of kindness—watering a grave while within its burial niche there lies an ocean? (1)

Al-Sarrāj said: “ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad informed me; I heard Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Bukhārī say:

ʿAlī ibn Hujr remarked, ‘On the day Ishāq departed, he left behind in Khurāsān no one his equal in knowledge and jurisprudence.’

May Allah brighten his face and shield him
from panic and dread on the Day of Bitter Cold,
and may He grant Firdaws to whoever says, ‘Āmīn,’
and bestow upon him, on the day he meets Him, what he longs for. (2)

Abū Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ said: ‘Ishāq was Ahmad’s peer; he unearthed the traditions and routed the people of deviation. (3)

Hanbal said: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allah, and he was asked about Ishāq ibn Rāhwayh. He replied, “Is someone like Ishāq to be inquired about?! In our view, Ishāq is an imām.”

Imām Ahmad likewise said, “I know of no one in the whole world comparable to Ishāq.”

Al-Nasāʾī said: ‘Ibn Rāhwayh is one of the imāms—reliable, trustworthy.’

I heard Saʿīd ibn Dhuʾayb say: ‘I do not know anyone on the face of the earth like Ishāq.’

The Imām of the Imāms, Ibn Khuzaymah, said: ‘By Allah, had Ishāq lived among the Successors, they would have acknowledged his memorization, knowledge, and legal understanding.’

ʿAlī ibn Khushram said: Ibn Faḍl narrated to us, from Ibn Shubrumah, from al-Shaʿbī,…"}