He would stay in Qudayd, and whenever letters reached the caliph he read them aloud for him.
He said: “He was reliable, trustworthy, and a prolific transmitter of ḥadith.”
He died in the year 86 or 87 AH.
Al-Bukhārī (1) said: “Qabīṣah heard directly from Abū al-Dardāʾ and Zayd ibn Thābit.”
Abū al-Zinād said: “ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān was the fourth of four foremost in jurisprudence and devotion—he himself, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Qabīṣah ibn Ḍuʿayb, and ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr.” (2)
Muḥammad ibn Rāshid al-Makḥūlī related: “Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar (3) ibn Nubayh al-Khuzaʿī told us, on the authority of his father, that Qabīṣah ibn Ḍuʿayb was a muʿallim kuttāb (teacher in a Qurʾānic elementary school).” (4)
I say: that was at the very beginning of his career.
Mujālid ibn Saʿīd reported: “Qabīṣah served as the scribe of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān.”
Makḥūl said: “I never saw anyone more knowledgeable than Qabīṣah.”
Al-Shaʿbī said: “Qabīṣah was the most knowledgeable of people regarding the legal judgments of Zayd ibn Thābit.” (5)
Ibn Lahīʿah, from Ibn Shihāb, said: “Qabīṣah ibn Ḍuʿayb was among the scholars of this ummah.” (6)
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and a group of others stated that he died in 86 AH; it was also said 87 AH, and others said 88 AH.
- Hammām ibn al-Ḥārith al-Nakhaʿī al-Kūfī (ʿ) — the jurist.