He was the Imām, jurist-muftī, master Qur’an reciter, ḥadīth scholar, and eminent chronicler of Islam: Abū Ḥamzah al-Anṣārī, al-Khazrajī, al-Najjārī, al-Madani—the servant of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, a kinsman of his through the womenfolk, his disciple and devotee, and the last of his Companions to die.
He transmitted an abundant store of knowledge from the Prophet ﷺ, and also narrated from Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, Muʿādh, Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr, Abū Ṭalḥah, his mother Umm Sulaym bint Milḥān, his maternal aunt Umm Ḥarām, her husband ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, Abū Dharr, Mālik ibn Saʿṣaʿah, Abū Hurayrah, Fāṭimah the Prophet’s daughter, and several others.
A vast multitude reported from him, among them: al-Ḥasan, Ibn Sīrīn, al-Shaʿbī, Abū Qilābah, Makḥūl, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Thābit al-Bunānī, Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī, al-Zuhri, Qatādah, Ibn al-Munkadir, Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣuhayb, Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb, ʿAmr ibn ʿĀmir al-Kūfī, Sulaymān al-Taymī, Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, Kathīr ibn Sulaym, ʿĪsā ibn Ṭahmān, and ʿUmar ibn Shākir.
His reliable students remained alive until after 150 AH, while the weaker ones lasted until after 190 AH. After them there survived individuals who are not considered trustworthy—in fact, their ḥadīth was rejected in its entirety—such as Ibrāhīm ibn Hudbah, Dīnār Abū Mikyās, Khirāsh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and Mūsā al-Ṭawīl. They lived on well beyond 200 AH, and no weight is attached to them.