Al-Shaʿbī also transmitted the report from al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym.
Its chain of transmission gathers five Successors in a single isnād.
Al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī recorded it through the route of Zāʾidah, and al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan (sound).
Ghundar narrated it from Shuʿbah, from Manṣūr, from Hilāl, from Rabīʿ, who said: “from ʿAmr, from a woman of the Anṣār,” thereby omitting Ibn Abī Laylā from the chain.
Jarīr likewise related it from Manṣūr, but he omitted both Ibn Abī Laylā and the woman.
Sufyān al-Thawrī said—on the authority of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Yaʿlā al-Thawrī—“Among the clan of Thawr there were thirty men; not one of them ranked below al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym.” ⦗1⦘
Ibn ʿUyaynah said: “I heard what he used to say.”
Al-Shaʿbī remarked: “I have never seen a people more learned, more forbearing, or more detached from the world than the companions of ʿAbd Allāh. Were it not for the precedence of the Companions, we would not place anyone ahead of them.”
Hammād ibn Yazīd—on the authority of someone who mentioned it, from Ibn Sīrīn—said: “I have never seen black-haired men more versed in jurisprudence than the people of Kūfah—among a folk possessed of courage.” ⦗2⦘
It is said that al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym died in the year 65 AH.
96 – ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā al-Anṣārī al-Kūfī * (ʿ)
The Imām, the erudite scholar, the ḥāfiẓ, Abū ʿĪsā al-Anṣārī, al-Kūfī, the jurist; and it is also said: