Al-Layth added, “He used to be called al-jund al-muqaddam (the vanguard of the army).
So ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz wrote to him, asking that he send everything he had heard from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, except for the reports of Abū Hurayrah, for those are already with us.
Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ—through Abū al-Zāhiriyyah—from Kathīr ibn Murrah, related:
“I entered the mosque on Friday and passed by ʿAwf ibn Mālik al-Ashjaʿī while he had his legs stretched out. He drew them in and then said,
‘O Kathīr, do you know why I had my legs outstretched? I spread them out hoping a righteous man would come along so I could seat him, and I hope you are that righteous man.’”
This is a commendable issue narrated from an illustrious Companion.
Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī said:
“I asked Duḥaym, ‘Who is in the same rank as Jubayr ibn Nufayr and Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī?’ He answered, ‘Kathīr ibn Murrah.’
I reminded him of Kathīr’s age, of Abū al-Dardāʾ’s debate with him over recitation behind the imam, and of ʿAwf’s remark, ‘I hope you are righteous.’ On that basis he placed him in their tier.”
Abū Mushir said: “Kathīr lived on until the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik.”
The author says: “In my reckoning he is among the mukhaḍramūn, and he died together with Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī—or slightly before him—may Allah be pleased with him.”
Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq informed us; Akmal ibn Abī al-Azhar informed us; Saʿīd ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Bannāʾ informed us; Abū Naṣr al-Zaynabī informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Warrāq narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Dāwūd narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us from Baḥīr ibn Saʿd al-Kalāʿī, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from Kathīr ibn Murrah, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
“No woman harms her husband in this world without his wife from among the ḥūr al-ʿīn (heavenly maidens) saying, ‘Do not harm him—may Allah destroy you—for he is only a passing guest with you; soon he will part from you to be with us.’”
Al-Tirmidhī also recorded it through al-Ḥasan, and we have matched him with a higher chain.
Its chain is sound and uninterrupted. (1)