On the authority of Ashhab, who said, “No one who ever came to us was the equal of Sahnūn.” (1)

Yūnus b. ʿAbd al-Aʿlā said, “Sahnūn is the master of the people of the Maghrib.” (2)

It is related from Ibn ʿAjlān al-Andalusī that he said, “After the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—no one was more richly blessed in his disciples than Sahnūn; in every land they were counted as leading imams.”

It is also reported from Sahnūn that he said, “Whoever fails to act upon his knowledge, that knowledge will not benefit him; indeed, it will harm him.”

Sahnūn said, “If a man attends the judge’s court for three consecutive days without legitimate need, his testimony should no longer be accepted.” (3)

Sahnūn was asked, “May a scholar say, ‘I do not know,’ regarding something he actually knows?” He replied, “As for anything that is settled by a verse of the Book or by a sound Sunnah, he may not. But in matters that rest on personal judgment, he may say so, for he cannot be sure whether he is right or mistaken.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad b. Khālid said, “Among all the scholars Muḥammad b. Waḍḍāḥ met, he ranked no one above Sahnūn in fiqh and in the finer points of legal problems.” (4)

Sahnūn said, “Better to earn one’s bread through humble toil than to earn it through knowledge.
The lover of this world is blind; knowledge has not illumined him.” (5)

“How disgraceful it is for a scholar to frequent the princes! By Allah, whenever I have entered upon the ruler and then departed, I have called myself to account and found a deficit against myself, (6) even though you can see how I oppose his desires and the sternness with which I address him. By Allah, never…"