Among those who narrated from him were Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, al-Mughīrah ibn Shubayl (1), Bayān ibn Bishr, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, Mujālid ibn Saʿīd, ʿUmar ibn Abī Zāʾidah, al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, Abū Ḥarīz ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥusayn, the judge of Sijistān—if that is sound—ʿĪsā ibn al-Musayyib al-Bajalī, al-Musayyib ibn Rāfiʿ, and many others.

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “He reported from Bilāl even though he never met him, and he heard nothing from Abū al-Dardāʾ or from Salmān.”

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah remarked, “No one in Kufa related more traditions from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ than Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim.” (2)

Abū Dāwūd said, “Among the Successors, the soundest isnād is that of Qays.”

He transmitted ḥadith from nine of the ten Companions who were promised Paradise, yet he did not narrate from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf. (2)

Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah stated, “Qays encountered Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq when he was already a mature man …,” until he said: “He is precise in transmission. Our scholars, however, have expressed differing opinions about him. Some elevated his status, revered him, and regarded the reports that come through him as among the most authentic isnāds. Others took him to task, saying he has irregular (munkar) narrations. Those who praised him argue that, in their judgment, these reports are not irregular but merely singular (gharāʾib). Still others found no fault with him in ḥadith yet criticized his doctrinal stance, claiming that he spoke against ʿAlī.

“The well-known view is that he favored ʿUthmān, and for that reason many of the early scholars of Kufa refrained from transmitting from him.”