76 – Hudhayfah ibn al-Yamān ibn Jābir al-ʿAbsī*
He was one of the distinguished Companions of Muhammad ﷺ and the Keeper of the Prophet’s secret.¹
Al-Yamān’s personal name was Hisl—some say Husayl—ibn Jābir al-ʿAbsī, also called al-Yamānī. His kunya was Abū ʿAbd Allāh. He was an ally of the Anṣār and counted among the leading Muhājirūn.
Those who narrated from him include Abū Wāʾil, Zir ibn Hubaysh, Zayd ibn Wahb, Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh, Ṣilah ibn Zufar, Thaʿlabah ibn Zuhdam, Abū al-ʿĀliyah al-Riyāḥī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, Muslim ibn Nudhayr, Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī, Qays ibn ʿUbād, Abū al-Bakhtarī al-Ṭāʾī, Nuʿaym ibn Abī Hind, Hammām ibn al-Ḥārith, and many others besides.
In the two Ṣaḥīḥs he is credited with twelve hadiths; eight are found in al-Bukhārī and seventeen in Muslim.
(*) Musnad Ahmad 5/382; Tabaqat Ibn Saad 6/15 and 7/317; Tarikh Ibn Maʿin 104; Tabaqat Khalifah 48, 130; Tarikh Khalifah 182; al-Tarikh al-Kabir 3/95; Tarikh al-Fasawi 3/311; al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil 3/256; Muʿjam al-Tabarani al-Kabir 3/178; al-Mustadrak 3/379-381; al-Istibsar 233-235; Hilyat al-Awliya 1/270, 283; al-Istiʿab 1/334; Ibn ʿAsakir 4/145/1; Usd al-Ghabah 1/468; Tahdhib al-Kamal 241; Tarikh al-Islam 2/152; al-Ibar 1/26, 37; Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 9/325; Tabaqat al-Qurraʾ 1/203; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 2/219-220; al-Isabah 2/223; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal 74; Kanz al-ʿUmmal 13/343; Shadharāt al-Dhahab 1/32, 44; Tahdhib Ibn ʿAsakir 4/96, 106.
(1) That is: he was the Prophet’s confidential trustee, the only person privy to this secret, namely the information the Prophet conveyed to him about the hypocrites. See: al-Bukhari 7/71, 73, Book of Merits, chapter on the virtues of ʿAmmar and Hudhayfah, and Musnad Ahmad 6/449.