I asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān how he managed to hear so many narrations from his father and to question him so often. He replied, “It would sometimes happen that he was eating and I would read to him, he was walking and I would read to him, he would step into the lavatory and I would read to him, or he would go into the house to look for something and I would read to him.” (1)

Aḥmad ibn Salamah al-Naysābūrī said, “Since the days of Isḥāq and Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, I have not seen anyone with a better memory for hadith than Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, nor anyone who understood their meanings more thoroughly.” (2)

Ibn ʿAdī reported: I heard al-Qāsim ibn Ṣafwān relate that he heard Abū Ḥātim say, “The four most scrupulously pious people I have ever seen are: Adam (3), Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Thābit ibn Muḥammad the ascetic, and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī.”

Al-Qāsim continued: I conveyed this to ʿUthmān ibn Khurrāzādh, who responded, “In my view, the four with the strongest powers of memorization among those I have met are: Muḥammad ibn al-Minhāl al-Ḍarīr, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿArʿarah, Abū Zurʿah, and Abū Ḥātim.” (4)

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: I heard Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā say, “Abū Zurʿah and Abū Ḥātim are the two imams of Khurasan.” He prayed for them and remarked, “Their continued presence is a source of well-being for the Muslims.” (5)