Mujāhid said, “We went to ʿUmar intending to teach him, but we did not rise to leave until we had learned from him.” (1)
Maymūn ibn Mihrān remarked, “Before ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz the scholars were but pupils.” (2) In another report he said, “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was the teacher of the scholars.” (3)
Al-Layth narrated: “A man who had kept the company of Ibn ʿUmar and Ibn ʿAbbās—and whom ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz used to appoint over al-Jazīrah—told me, ‘Whenever we looked into any branch of knowledge, we found ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz the most learned of people regarding both its root and its offshoots; and in his presence the scholars were nothing but students.’”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs said, “I saw my father and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz standing together after the ʿIshāʾ prayer until daybreak. When they parted I asked, ‘Father, who is that man?’ He replied, ‘That is ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; among the Umayyads he is one of the righteous.’” (4)
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr said, “I once (5) asked ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, ‘What was the beginning of your turning in repentance?’ He answered, ‘I was about to strike a servant of mine when he said to me, “Remember the night whose morning is the Day of Resurrection.”’ (3)”
Imām Mālik related, “When ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was deposed from the governorship of Madinah—in the year 93 AH—he left the city, looked back at it, and wept. Then he said to his valet, ‘O Muzāḥim, we fear that we may be among those whom Madinah drives out.’ (6) [That is, Madinah expels its impurity just as a bellows expels the dross of iron, leaving only its pure fragrance.]
I (the author) say: He departed from Madinah and stayed for a time in a nearby place called al-Suwaydāʾ (7), after which he went on to Damascus to his cousins.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq reported from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ḥakīm that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “I left Madinah, and no man was more knowledgeable than I; but when I reached Syria I was made to forget.” (3)
Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAffān narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, who said, “I stayed awake one night with…"