Gifts of Knowledge

Ibn Abdul-Hādī, said, “And one of them [i.e., the scholars who accompanied Ibn Taymiyyah and learnt from him] was the Shaikh, the Imām, the Exemplary, the Abstemious, the Knower [of Allaah], ʿImādud-Dīn Abul-ʿAbbās Aḥmad bin Ibrāhīm bin ʿAbdur-Raḥmān al-Wāsiṭī, known as Ibn Shaikh al-Ḥazzāmīn, he was a righteous man, scrupulous … he wrote a missive to a group of Ibn Taymiyyah’s companions, advising them to stick to the Shaikh and encouraging them to follow his way and praised him greatly, and this is a copy of the letter …”

One of the things Ibn Shaikh al-Ḥazzāmīn wrote in that letter was, “We haven’t seen, in this time of ours, anyone through whose speech and actions the Muhammadan Prophethood and its Sunnah have been brought to light except this man—such that the sound heart testifies that this, this is true following.”
At-Tadhkirah wal-Iʿtibār wal-Intiṣār lil-Abrār Difāʿan ʿan Ibn Taymiyyah, pp. 11-12 and 44.

Al-Bazzaar said about Ibn Taymiyyah, “And he wouldn’t become fed up of anyone asking him for a verdict [fatwa] or questions, rather he would greet them with a happy face, mild-mannered, and stay with them until the questioner would be the one to part first, whether young or old, man or woman, free person or slave, scholar or commoner, city-dweller or bedouin—he wouldn’t refuse anyone or embarrass them or drive them away by saying anything that would make them feel uneasy, but would instead answer them and make them understand and show them what was correct from what was not, all with gentleness and pleasantly.”

Al-Aʿlām al-ʿAliyyah fī Manāqibi Shaikhil-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, pp. 48-49.

Al-Bazzār said, “I never saw anyone honour and venerate the Shaikh more than his brother who was the one supporting him [in his worldly affairs]. He used to sit in the Shaikh’s presence as though there was a bird perched on his head [i.e., deadly still]. And would respect him the way you would a Sultan [i.e., a ruler].

We would marvel at that and said to him, ‘Normal custom and habit dictates that a person’s family aren’t as reserved with him as outsiders, and that in fact they relax with him more than a stranger, but we see you with the Shaikh like a student of his in your clear awe and reverence of him.’

So he said, ‘I see things from him that other people don’t, things which oblige me to be with him as you see.’

He would be asked to expound on that but would not mention a single thing due to him knowing that the Shaikh didn’t want it.”
Al-Aʿlām al-ʿAliyyah fī Manāqibi Shaikhil-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 52.

Ibn Rajab said, “And it has reached me through an authentic line of transmission from Ibn az-Zamlakānī that he was asked about the Shaikh, i.e., Ibn Taymiyyah, so he said, “No one greater in memorisation than him has been seen in five hundred years …”

Ash-Shahādah az-Zakiyyah fī Thanāʾil-Aʾimmah ʿalā Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 36.