Someone said to him, “You have only one fault: you talk too much.”
He replied, “Do I speak truth or falsehood?”
They answered, “Truth, of course.”
He said, “The more truth there is, the better.”

Another person reproached him for wearing coarse clothes, so he said, “I wear a garment that serves me; I will not wear a garment that I must serve.”

Al-Aṣmaʿī reported that Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah said, “The finest quality a man can possess is a truthful tongue. Whoever is denied the virtue of truthfulness has been robbed of the noblest of character.”

It was also said: A man asked Iyās about nabīdh, and he replied, “It is forbidden.”
The man asked, “Then tell me about water.”
He said, “Permissible.”
“And kashūt (1)?”
“Permissible.”
“And dates?”
“Permissible.”
“So why is it that when these items come together they are unlawful?”

Iyās said, “Suppose I were to throw this handful of earth at you—would it hurt you?”
“No.”
“And this handful of straw?”
“It would not hurt me.”
“And this scoop of water?”
“It would not hurt me at all.”
“What if I mixed this with that and that with this until it became mud, left it until it hardened, and then hurled it at you—would it hurt?”
“By Allah, yes; it would even kill me.”
He said, “The same is true of those ingredients when they are combined. (2)”

Al-Madāʾinī recounted: ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz appointed ʿAdī ibn Arṭāh governor of Basra and ordered him to summon Iyās and al-Qāsim ibn Rabīʿah al-Jawshanī; whichever of them proved the more learned was to be made judge. Iyās—wishing to avoid the appointment—said, “Sir, ask the two jurists of Basra, al-Hasan and Ibn Sīrīn.” Iyās did not visit them, whereas al-Qāsim did. Al-Qāsim realised that if ʿAdī consulted them they would recommend him—that is, al-Qāsim, because he frequented them. So al-Qāsim (3) said to ʿAdī, “By Allah, besides whom there is no deity, Iyās is better than I, more learned than I, and more knowledgeable in judicial matters. If I am truthful, appoint him; and if I am lying, it is not fitting that you appoint a liar to the judiciary.”

Iyās remarked, “This man was standing on the brink of Hell and has ransomed himself with a false oath for which he will seek Allah’s forgiveness.”

ʿAdī said, “Since you have perceived this, I appoint you judge.” Iyās then spent a year resolving people’s disputes and reconciling them; whenever the truth became clear to him he ruled accordingly. After that he fled (to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in Damascus) (3) and requested to be relieved of the post, whereupon ʿAdī appointed al-Hasan al-Baṣrī.

They said: When Iyās assumed the judgeship in Basra, the scholars rejoiced, so much so that Ayyūb said, “They have struck it with its own stone.” And there came—