and ʿUqbah ibn Ṣuhbān, Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh, al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays, and others.
He took up residence in Basra, was counted among the jurists of the Companions, and once appeared before Muʿāwiyah.
His mother was Sumayyah, which made him the maternal half-brother of Ziyād ibn Abīh (1).
Ibn al-Madīnī said, “His name is Nufayʿ ibn al-Ḥārith,” and Ibn Saʿd recorded the same. Ibn ʿAsākir (2) wrote: “Abū Bakrah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Kaladah ibn ʿAmr.” Others maintained that he had been a slave of al-Ḥārith ibn Kaladah, who later acknowledged him as his son.
Sumayyah was al-Ḥārith’s bondwoman. He once lowered himself from the fortress by means of a pulley-bucket (bakrah), and from that day he was given the kunyah Abū Bakrah.
Among those who narrated from him were his two children, Rawwād and Kayyisah.
Abū Bakrah denied being al-Ḥārith’s son and used to say, “I am Abū Bakrah, the Messenger of Allah’s freedman. If people insist on attaching me to someone, then I am Nufayʿ ibn Masrūḥ.”
The well-known incident is that ʿUmar flogged Abū Bakrah, Nāfiʿ, and Shibl ibn Maʿbad for testifying that al-Mughīrah had committed adultery. He then ordered them to repent; the latter two did so, but Abū Bakrah refused.
Consequently, whenever someone came to request his testimony, he would say, “They have already branded me a fāsiq” (3).
(1) See Ibn al-Athir, al-Tarikh, vol. 3, p. 443.
(2) Its full chain of transmission is cited at several points in the biographical entry on Abu Bakra.
(3) Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 5, p. 187, Book of Testimonies, chapter “The Testimony of the Slanderer”: it states that Umar flogged Abu Bakra, Shibl b. Maʿbad, and Nafiʿ for accusing al-Mughira, then asked them to repent, saying, “Whoever repents, I will accept his testimony.”
Al-Shafiʿi also transmits the report with a continuous chain in his Musnad printed in the margin of al-Umm, vol. 6, p. 157: “I heard al-Zuhri say, ‘The people of Iraq claim that the testimony of one who has suffered the prescribed punishment is invalid, but I testify that So-and-so told me that Umar b. al-Khattab said to Abu Bakra, ‘Repent and your testimony will be accepted.’’ Sufyan added, ‘Al-Zuhri named the informant—I memorized it and then forgot it—until Amr b. Qays told me it was Ibn al-Musayyab.’
The same report comes through Ibn Ishaq, from al-Zuhri, from Saʿid b. al-Musayyab, with the wording: “Umar b. al-Khattab administered the hadd to Abu Bakra, Shibl b. Maʿbad, and Nafiʿ b. al-Harith b. Kalda, and said to them, ‘Whoever declares himself a liar, I will henceforth accept his testimony; whoever refuses, I will not accept it.’ Shibl and Nafiʿ recanted, but Abu Bakra refused.” Al-Zuhri concluded, “By Allah, this is a sunnah, so preserve it!” See …