Those who narrated from him include Abū Ṭalḥah al-Khawlānī, Rāshid ibn Saʿd, and Ḥabīb ibn ʿUbayd. He witnessed the conquest of Syria and administered Damascus and Ḥimṣ on behalf of ʿUmar.
A group reports—through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Abū Sinān, from Abū Ṭalḥah—who said:
“We came to ʿUmayr ibn Saʿd—he was known as ‘the peerless one’ (1)—and sat in his courtyard. He called out, ‘Boy, lead the horses to water.’ The lad did so, whereupon ʿUmayr asked, ‘Where is the mare?’ He answered, ‘She has mange and her wounds are dripping blood.’ ʿUmayr said, ‘Bring her as well. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “There is no contagion, no augury, and no hāmah (2).”’
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Qaddāḥ said: ʿUmayr ibn Saʿd ibn Shuhayyd kept the company of the Prophet ﷺ, yet he was present at none of the campaigns. He is the one who conveyed to the Prophet ﷺ the words of Julās ibn Suwayd, while ʿUmayr was an orphan in his care.
= Al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil 6/376; al-Istibsar 281; al-Istiʿab 3/1215; Ibn ʿAsakir 13/339/1; Usd al-Ghabah 4/294; Tahdhib al-Kamal 1061; Tarikh al-Islam 2/89 and 241; Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 9/382; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 8/144-145; al-Isabah 7/163; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal 296; Kanz al-ʿUmmal 13/556.
(1) The author will shortly quote—on the authority of Ibn Sirin—that ʿUmar was the one who used to call him by this name, out of admiration for him. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar also cites this report in al-Isabah, attributing it to Ibn ʿAʾidh.
(2) The chain is weak because of Abu Sinan, whose full name is ʿIsa b. Sinan al-Hanafi al-Qasmali; Ahmad, Ibn Maʿin, Abu Zurʿa, Abu Hatim, and al-Nasaʾi all judged him unreliable. Only Ibn Hibban declared him trustworthy, and his endorsement is not accepted for someone who has no other evaluation—let alone one whom several leading critics have weakened. Al-Haythami reproduces the report in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 3/101–102, saying: “It was transmitted by Abu Yaʿla and al-Tabarani in abridged form. Its chain includes ʿIsa b. Sinan al-Hanafi—deemed reliable by Ibn Hibban and others, but declared weak by Ahmad and others—while the remaining transmitters are trustworthy.”
The phrase in the hadith, “la ʿadwa wa la tiyarata wa la hamata” (there is no contagion, no augury, and no hamah), is authentically related from Abu Hurayrah; al-Bukhari records it in the Book of Medicine, chapter “No hamah,” 10/205–206, and Muslim (no. 2022) in the Book of Peace, chapter “No contagion, no augury.”