Kilab; he was the Commander of the Believers, the King of Islam, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qurashi, the Umayyad, the Meccan.
His mother was Hind bint ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Qusayy.
It is said that he accepted Islam before his father, at the time of the compensatory ʿumrah, yet he was afraid to join the Prophet ﷺ because of his father, and his conversion did not become public until the Day of the Conquest.
He transmitted hadith from the Prophet ﷺ and served as his scribe on a few occasions.
He also narrated from his sister, the Mother of the Believers Umm Ḥabībah, as well as from Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.
Those who reported from him include Ibn ʿAbbās, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān, Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī, Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd al-Maqburī, Khālid ibn Maʿdān, Hammām ibn Munabbih, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Muqriʾ, al-Qāsim Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, ʿUmayr ibn Hāniʾ, ʿUbādah ibn Nusayy, Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, the father of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, and many others besides them.
Companions who likewise narrated from him include Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, Abū Saʿīd, al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, and Ibn al-Zubayr.
Ibn Abī al-Dunyā and others record that Muʿāwiyah was tall, fair-skinned, and handsome; when he laughed, his upper lip would turn up, and he used to dye his hair.
Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated from Abū ʿAbd Rabb: “I saw Muʿāwiyah applying dye.”