Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related—on the authority of Makḥūl—who said, “I traversed the whole earth in pursuit of knowledge, yet I never met anyone more learned than Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab.” ⦗1⦘

Al-Awzāʿī reported that al-Zuhrī and Makḥūl were asked, “Who is the most proficient jurist you have encountered?” They answered, “Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab.”

Another scholar said, “He used to be called the Jurist of the Jurists.”

Qatādah declared, “I have never seen anyone better informed about what is lawful and unlawful than he.”

Whenever something puzzled al-Ḥasan, he would write to Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab. ⦗2⦘

Mālik narrated—through Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd—from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab: “I would travel for days and nights to obtain a single hadith.” ⦗3⦘

Mālik also said, “It has reached me that Ibn ʿUmar used to send to Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, asking him about ʿUmar’s legal cases and verdicts.” ⦗4⦘

Al-Rabīʿ transmitted from al-Shāfiʿī that he said, “In our view, the mursal transmissions of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab are acceptable.” ⦗5⦘

Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal stated, “They are authentic,” and added, “Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab is the foremost of the Successors.” ⦗6⦘

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “I know of no one among the Successors whose knowledge is broader than his. When Saʿīd says, ‘The sunnah has been established,’ that alone suffices you. In my estimation he is the greatest of the Successors.” ⦗7⦘

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAjlī remarked, “Saʿīd was a righteous, learned jurist. He would not accept the state stipend; instead, he owned merchandise worth four hundred dinars and traded in oil. He was blind in one eye.” ⦗8⦘

Abū Zurʿah said, “He was a trustworthy Imām from Medina.”

Abū Ḥātim observed, “There is no one among the Successors nobler than he, and he is the most reliable of them in narrating from Abū Hurayrah.”

Al-Wāqidī ⦗9⦘ said, “He died in the ‘Year of the Jurists,’ the year 94 AH, at the age of seventy-five. May Allah have mercy on him.”