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The Little Shaykh Is Here.
Nadr al-Hilali said that when he was in the class of Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna, a child entered at whom the students glanced in disgust. Ibn ‘Uyayna said to them, “You were like this too. Allah has favored you.” To Nadr he said, “You should have seen me when I was ten years old. I was just a hand span then, my face was like a dinar and I was like a spark of fire. I attended the gatherings of the scholars of different towns like Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri and ‘Amr ibn Dinar……People would comment, ‘The little Shaykh is here.’”
Al Kifayah pg. 60-61.
Imam Ibn ‘Uyayna also used to say to his students, “When I went to the classes of Ibn Shihab Zuhri, I had earrings in my ears and a ponytail on my head. He saw me and said, ‘Sit down here. Here! I have never seen a younger scholar.’”
Taken from “Achievements of Muslim Women in the Religious and Scholarly Fields” by Qadi Athar Mubarakpuri.