search of knowledge and striving in Allah’s cause; he settled in Kūfah and remained constantly at the side of Ibn Masʿūd until he himself became a pre-eminent authority in both learning and practice. Other scholars took their jurisprudence from him, and his fame spread far and wide.
He transmitted hadith from: ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Sulaymān, Abū al-Dardāʾ, Khālid ibn al-Walīd, Ḥudhayfah, Khabbāb, ʿĀʾishah, Saʿd, ʿAmmār, Abū Masʿūd al-Badrī, Abū Mūsā, Maʿqil ibn Sinān, Salamah ibn Yazīd al-Juʿfī, Shurayḥ ibn Arṭāʾ, Qays ibn Marwān, and many others.
He mastered the Qur’an under the tutelage of Ibn Masʿūd. Those who recited it to him included Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb, ʿUbayd ibn Nuḍaylah (1), and Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī.
Leading imams—such as Ibrāhīm and al-Shaʿbī—derived their jurisprudence from him. After the passing of ʿAlī and Ibn Masʿūd he undertook the duties of imamate and the issuing of fatwas. In his conduct, bearing, and outward appearance he was likened to Ibn Masʿūd.
His pupils would ask him questions and study law with him while many Companions were still alive.
Among those who narrated from him were: Abū Wāʾil, al-Shaʿbī, ʿUbayd ibn Nuḍaylah, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, Abū Ḍuḥā Muslim ibn Ṣubayḥ, Ibrāhīm ibn Suwayd al-Nakhaʿī, Abū Ẓabyān Ḥuṣayn ibn Jundub al-Janbī, Abū Maʿmar ʿAbd Allah ibn Sakhbarah, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, his nephew ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, ʿUmārah ibn ʿUmayr, Abū Qays ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Tharwān al-Awdī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwsajah, al-Qāsim ibn Mukhaimarah, Qays ibn Rūmī, Murrah al-Ṭayyib, Hunayy ibn Nuwayrah, Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb, Yazīd ibn Uways, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Nakhaʿī—though not the Umayyad—Abū Ruqād al-Nakhaʿī, and al-Musayyab ibn Rāfiʿ.
Abū al-Zinād and others also reported mursal traditions from him.