What we wish to note at this point is that Muslim travelled to Iraq, the Ḥijaz, Greater Syria, and Egypt, and that he heard ḥadith from a large number of scholars whom our teacher, the ḥadith master al-Mizzī, has listed in his Tahdhīb (1), arranged alphabetically.

Likewise, many scholars transmitted from him. Among them is al-Tirmidhī, who cites a single ḥadith from him in his Jāmiʿ—the narration of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said (2):
“Monitor the crescent of Shaʿbān in preparation for Ramaḍān.”

Others who reported from him include Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazara, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ṣāʿid, and Abū ʿAwānah al-Isfarāyinī.

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī relates (3): “Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb told me; Muḥammad ibn Naʿīm al-Ḍabbī told us; Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm told us—I heard Aḥmad ibn Salamah say, ‘I saw Abū Zurʿah and Abū Ḥātim place Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ahead of all the teachers of their age in recognising what is authentic.’”

He also said, “Ibn Yaʿqūb informed me; Muḥammad ibn Naʿīm informed us—I heard al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Māsarjisī say: I heard my father say: I heard Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj remark, ‘I compiled this “Ṣaḥīḥ Musnad” out of three hundred thousand ḥadiths that I had heard.’” (4)

Al-Khaṭīb further narrates (5): “Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh (6) ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Sūdhurjānī in Iṣfahān told me; I heard Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Mandah say: I heard Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī declare, ‘Under the vault of heaven there is nothing more authentic, in the science of ḥadith, than the book of Ibn al-Ḥajjāj.’”

When Muslim’s name was mentioned before Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, he exclaimed in Persian words whose meaning is: “What a man that was!” (7)

And Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr once said to Muslim, “So long as Allah keeps you alive for the Muslims, goodness will never be absent.” (8)