Al-Hakim said, “I heard Abu ‘Ali al-Hafiz remark, ‘Al-Ribati—by Allah—was one of the exemplary imams whose conduct is to be emulated’ ⦗1⦘.
Al-Khalili stated, “He was a hadith master, precise in his craft.”
Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Saffar said, “Had al-Hasan al-Basri been alive, he would have needed Ishaq ibn Rahawayh; and after him I have never seen anyone like Ahmad al-Ribati.”
72 – Fadl ibn Sahl ibn Ibrahim al-Baghdadi (cited by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa’i, and al-Tirmidhi)
The hadith master, outstanding and reliable—Abu al-‘Abbas al-A‘raj, al-Baghdadi, al-Rami.
He was born sometime in the 180s AH, or a little earlier.
He narrated from: Yazid ibn Harun; Husayn al-Ju‘fi; Abu Ahmad al-Zubayri; Zayd ibn Hubab; Muhammad ibn Bishr al-‘Abdi; ‘Abd al-Wahhab ibn ‘Ata’; Abu Nuh Qurad; Abu ‘Asim; al-Hasan ibn Musa; Shababa; ‘Affan; Ya‘qub ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa‘d; Abu al-Nadr; Yahya ibn Ghaylan; Yunus ibn Muhammad; and many others beyond counting. He was regarded as one of the foremost guardians of hadith.