who is “the great majority”?’

He answered, ‘Muḥammad ibn Aslam, his companions, and all who follow their path.’

Isḥāq then added, ‘For the past fifty years I have not encountered a scholar more firmly attached to the Prophet’s tradition than Muḥammad ibn Aslam.’ (1)

Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim said, ‘I once met Abū Yaʿqūb al-Marwazī in Baghdad and asked him, “You kept company with both Muḥammad ibn Aslam and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Which of the two was weightier, greater, and more insightful in matters of religion?” (2)

He replied, “O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, why do you ask that? When I mention Muḥammad in four qualities, do not match anyone with him: perceptiveness in religion, adherence to the transmitted Sunnah, renunciation of the world, and his eloquence in the Qur’an and Arabic grammar.

“Aḥmad once examined Ibn Aslam’s book The Refutation of the Jahmiyyah and was amazed by it.”

Then Abū (3) Yaʿqūb said to me, “Have your eyes ever seen anyone like Muḥammad?” I replied, “No.” (4)

With this same chain Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim said: “I asked Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā about six legal questions and he issued verdicts on them. I had previously asked (5) Muḥammad ibn Aslam the same questions; he gave different rulings, supporting each one with a hadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him—evidence that we did not possess. (6)”