and they assembled formal testimonies against him, denounced him as an innovator, accused him of zandaqa (heresy), and imputed to him other matters from which Allah has kept him pure.

Baqī used to say, “I have planted for them in al-Andalus a seed that will not be uprooted until the Dajjal (Antichrist) emerges. (1)”

He also said: “I came to Iraq at a time when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal had been barred from narrating hadith. I asked him to relate hadith to me, and because there was a close friendship between us he would transmit hadith to me in the form of replies to my questions while we were alone, until I had collected from him nearly three hundred hadith.”

I say: This report has a broken chain.

Ibn Ḥazm said: “In Baqī’s Musnad he narrates from one thousand three hundred-odd Companions, arranging the traditions of each Companion under the headings of jurisprudence; thus the work is at once a Musnad and a topical compilation. I know of no one before him who reached this rank, given his reliability, precision, mastery, and meticulous care in hadith.

“He also produced a compilation of the legal verdicts of the Companions, the Successors, and those after them—a book that surpasses the compilations of Ibn Abī Shaybah, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, and Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr. He then went on to highlight Baqī’s tafsīr and said:

‘The writings of this eminent Imām have become foundational pillars of Islam, without equal. He was an independent jurist who followed no one blindly; he enjoyed a special relationship with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and ran in the same race as al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and al-Nasāʾī. (2)’

Abū ʿAbd al-Malik—cited above—said in his History: “Baqī was tall, aquiline-nosed (3), with a thick beard (4), strong and tireless on foot; he was never seen riding an animal at all.”