Ibn al-Athīr relates: An emir once asked Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān about his Sunan, saying, “Is it all authentic?” He replied, “No.” The emir then said, “In that case, write for us what is authentic.” So he extracted al-Mujtanā (1).

I say: This is not correct; al-Mujtanā is in fact the selection of Ibn al-Sunnī (2).

The ḥadith authority Abū ʿAlī al-Nīsābūrī said: “The unrivalled imam in ḥadith who narrated to us is Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī.”

Abū Ṭālib Aḥmad ibn Naṣr, the ḥadith scholar, remarked: “Who can endure what al-Nasāʾī endures? He has in his possession the ḥadith of Ibn Luhayʿah with a full heading—that is, from Qutaybah, from Ibn Luhayʿah—yet he has never transmitted it.”

Abū al-Hasan al-Dāraquṭnī said: “Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is ahead of everyone mentioned in this science among the scholars of his era.”

The ḥadith master Ibn Ṭāhir recounted: “I asked Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Zanjānī about a certain narrator, and he declared him reliable. I said, ‘But al-Nasāʾī has graded him weak.’ He replied, ‘My son, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān applies to narrators a criterion stricter than that of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.’”

I say: He spoke truly, for al-Nasāʾī declared weak a number of narrators who appear in the two Ṣaḥīḥs of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

Muḥammad ibn al-Muẓaffar, the ḥadith scholar, said: “I heard our teachers in Egypt describe al-Nasāʾī’s tireless devotion to worship, day and night, and that he set out for the prisoner-exchange expedition (fidāʾ) with the governor of Egypt, where he was described …”