he is a discerning master of Arabic and its grammar; and as for Muḥammad ibn Aslam, had it been possible for me to go to him, I would certainly have done so.

Aḥmad ibn Salamah said, “I asked Abū Ḥātim, ‘Have you aligned yourself with the view of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Ishāq ibn Rāhwayh?’ He replied, ‘In no age and no era do I know of anyone comparable to these two men.’

Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī related: “I heard Ishāq al-Ḥanẓalī say, ‘I entered upon the governor ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir while I had some dates in my sleeve that I was eating. He looked at me and said, “Abū Yaʿqūb, if your refusal to show off is not itself showing off, then there is no one on earth with less ostentation than you.”’”

The following lines are by Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Ribāṭī:
My yearning to draw near to God has called me
to love Abū Yaʿqūb, Ishāq.
He never declared the Qur’an created,
as that impious heretic once claimed.
O proof of God over His servants,
upholding the Sunnah of the ancients for those to come!
Your father Ibrāhīm was pure piety—
a forerunner in glory, son of a forerunner. (1)

Aḥmad ibn Kāmil said: Abū Yaḥyā al-Shaʿrānī informed us that Ishāq died in the year 238 AH, and that he used to dye his hair with henna.

He added, “I never saw a book in his hand; he transmitted only from memory. Whenever I discussed knowledge with Ishāq, I found him a unique ocean in it, but when I turned to worldly affairs I discovered he had no opinion at all.”

I say: Alongside his prodigious memory he was an imam in Qur’anic exegesis, a leading authority in jurisprudence, and one of the foremost scholars of independent reasoning.