However, after 200 AH only a few men were still alive who had heard ḥadīth from his reliable pupils—among them Yazīd ibn Hārūn, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bakr al-Sahmī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī, Abū ʿĀṣim al-Nabīl, and Abū Nuʿaym. (1)

The author of al-Tahdhīb lists nearly two hundred individuals who narrated from Anas.

Anas used to say: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah when I was ten years old, and he died when I was twenty. My mothers would urge me to serve the Messenger of Allah.” (2)

Thus Anas accompanied his Prophet ﷺ with the fullest degree of companionship, remaining constantly at his side from the time of the Hijrah until the Prophet’s death. He joined him on more than one campaign and pledged allegiance beneath the Tree.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd relates in his Tabaqāt:

“Al-Anṣārī told us—on the authority of his father, from a freedman of Anas—that he said to Anas, ‘Did you witness Badr?’ Anas replied, ‘May your mother be bereaved of you! How could I possibly have missed Badr?’ Al-Anṣārī added: ‘He set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to Badr while he was a youth serving him.’” (3)

The same report was transmitted by ʿUmar ibn Shabbah, from al-Anṣārī, from his father, from Thumāmah, who said: “It was said to Anas …” and he gave a similar account.

I say: The scholars of the military expeditions did not count him among those who fought at Badr, because he was present merely as a boy.