He resided in Kūfa and was counted among the leading Companions. A prolific transmitter of hadith, he fought in many expeditions alongside the Prophet ﷺ, though he was turned back from Badr for being underage. He said, “I and Ibn ʿUmar were the same age.” (1)
He also narrated from Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and from his maternal uncle, Abū Burdah ibn Niyār.
Among those who related from him were the two Companions ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Khaṭmī and Abū Juḥayfah al-Suʾāʾī, as well as ʿAdī ibn Thābit, Saʿd ibn ʿUbaydah, Abū ʿUmar Zādhān, Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, and many others.
He passed away in 72 AH; some say he died in 71 AH, at a little over eighty years of age.
His father belonged to the earliest ranks of the Anṣār.
Al-Wāqidī said, “We have found no reference to him in the narratives of the campaigns.” (2)
Abū Isḥāq reported that al-Barāʾ said, “I joined the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in fifteen expeditions.” (3)
= Al-Ghaya 1/171; Tadhhib al-Asma wa-l-Lughat 1/1/132; Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 142; Tarikh al-Islam 3/139; al-Ibar 1/79; Tadhhib al-Tahdhib 1/80a; Muʿjam al-Tabarani 2/8; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat 10/104; Mirʾat al-Jinan 1/145; Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 9/381; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 1/425; al-Isaba 1/142; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 39; Shadharat al-Dhahab 1/77–78.
(1) Ibn Saʿd 4/367 transmits it through ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr, from al-Aʿmash, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Baraʾ. Al-Bukhari also records it (7/226) through Shuʿba, from Abu Ishaq, who heard al-Baraʾ say: “I and Ibn ʿUmar were judged too young on the day of Badr.”
(2) The remainder of his statement as preserved by Ibn Saʿd 4/365 reads: “We have also heard his report about the man whom Abu Bakr bought from him,” after which he cites the migration narration through ʿUbayd Allah ibn Musa, reporting from Israʾil, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Baraʾ, who said: “Abu Bakr bought a man from ʿAzib for thirteen dirhams. Abu Bakr said to ʿAzib: ‘Tell al-Baraʾ to carry him to my quarters.’ ʿAzib replied: ‘Not until you relate to us what you and the Messenger of Allah did when you set out while the idolaters were pursuing you.’”
(3) The chain is sound; the report appears in al-Tabaqat 4/368 and in Musnad al-Tayalisi 2/141.