Yahya bin Ayyub al-'Aabid: I heard them in the city of Marw saying "ath-Thawree has arrived! ath-Thawree has arrived! ath-Thawree has arrived!" So I went out to look and there I saw a young boy who had just started growing a beard.
'AbdurRazzaq: Sufyaan said, "My heart never deceived (i.e. I never forgot) me in anything I put in it."
ath-Thahabee: The best chain of narrators in Iraaq is, Sufyaan - Mansoor - Ibraaheem - 'Alqamah.
Shu'bah, Ibn 'Uyaynah, Aboo 'Aasim and Yahya bin Ma'een amongst others all said: Sufyaan ath-Thawree is the Aamir-ul-Mu'mineen fil hadeeth.
'Abdullaah bin Mubaarak: "I wrote (hadeeth) from 1100 Shaykhs, and I did not write from anyone better than Sufyaan. I never met anyone better than Sufyaan."
Yunuus bin 'Ubeeyd: "I never saw anyone better than Sufyaan." So it was said to him, but you met Sa'eed bin Jubayr, Ibraaheem an-Nakha'ee and 'Ata bin Abee Rabaha aswell as Mujaahid? Whereupon he replied, "It is as I said, I never saw anyone better than Sufyaan"
Shu'bah: "Sufyaan increased mankind both in Wara' (piety) and 'Ilm (knowledge)"
Aboo Mu'aawiyah: "I have never seen anyone who knew more about al-'Amash's hadeeth than ath-Thawree"
Yahya bin Sa'eed: "Sufyaan knows the hadeeths of al-'Amash better than al-'Amash himself!"
al-Fudhayl bin 'Iyyaadh: "Sufyaan was by Allaah more knowledgeable than Aboo Haneefah"
Bishr al-Haafi: "Sufyaan was in our time in the same status that Aboo Bakr and 'Umar were in their time."
Aboo Bakr bin 'Ayyaash: "When I see a person in the company of Sufyaan ath-Thawree I automatically think highly of him"
Imaam Ahmad bin Hanbal: "Do you know who the (real) Imaam is? It is Sufyaan ath-Thawree, no one has a higher place than him in my heart"
Yusuf bin Asbaat: Sufyaan was asked a question once whilst trading, he replied, "Leave me because my heart is preoccupied with Dirhams"
Yusuf bin Asbaat: "Whenever Sufyaan ath-Thawree used to remember the hereafter he would urinate blood."
Yahyha al-Qattaan: I heard Sufyaan ath-Thawree saying, "Verily the worst occupation is to seek the dunya through the actions of the hereafter"
Yahya bin Yamaan: Sufyaan ath-Thawree said, "Money is the disease of this world and the doctor is the Scholar. If the Doctor himself accumulates the disease when will the people be cured then?"
[Taken from the book "Siyaar 'Alaam an-Nubalaa"]
Assalamu`alaykum
JazakAllaah Khayran.
A very beneficial post May Allaah Azza Wa Jal reward you. I think more than Almonds and Honey we should pay heed to our sins to improve our memory.
Assalamu Alaikum,
Jazakallahu Khairan akhi,
May Allah give us the strength to leave off our sins. Ameen.