says, “I heard and saw.” He also heard much from the Companions, and his understanding and ability to draw inferences were blessed, until he filled the world with knowledge and religious understanding. Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm said that his fatwas were collected in seven large volumes. Yet this collection contained only what had reached its compiler; otherwise, Ibn ʿAbbās’s knowledge was like an ocean. His religious understanding, his deductions, and his understanding of the Quran were of such a calibre that he surpassed others, although they had heard what he heard and memorized the Quran just as he had. His soil, however, was among the richest and most receptive to cultivation. He sowed the revealed texts in it, and it brought forth every noble kind of growth. That is Allah’s bounty, which He grants to whom He wills, and Allah is the Possessor of great bounty.

What comparison is there between Ibn ʿAbbās’s fatwas, his interpretation, and his deductions, and the fatwas and interpretation of Abū Hurayra? Yet Abū Hurayra had a stronger memory than he did; indeed, he was the foremost memorizer of hadith in the entire community. He conveyed hadith just as he had heard it and diligently reviewed it at night. His efforts were devoted to memorizing and conveying what he had memorized exactly as he had heard it. Ibn ʿAbbās’s efforts, by contrast, were devoted to gaining deep understanding, drawing inferences, opening up the wellsprings of the revealed texts, making rivers flow from them, and extracting their treasures.

So too did their heirs after them: in their religion, they relied on drawing inferences from the revealed texts, not on philosophical imaginings, analogical opinion, or other innovated views. Inevitably, victory, true praise, and reward both now and hereafter belonged to the heirs of the prophets, who follow them in this world and the Hereafter. For a person follows the religion of his close friend.

“Say, ‘If you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you.’”