al-Hasan [al-Baṣrī] and Ibn Sīrīn, and he was counted among the foremost disciples of Ibn ʿAbbās. Those who narrated from him include ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, Qatādah, and others.

ʿAṭāʾ transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, “Had the people of Basra abided by the opinion of Jābir ibn Zayd, it would have sufficed them with knowledge of what is in the Book of Allah.” (1)

It is also related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, “You ask me questions while Jābir ibn Zayd is among you!” (2)

ʿAmr ibn Dīnār said, “I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable than Abū Shaʿthāʾ.” (3)

Ibn al-Aʿrābī stated, “Abū Shaʿthāʾ used to sit in a teaching circle in the Grand Mosque of Basra, issuing legal verdicts there before al-Hasan. He was one of those who exert themselves in worship. People nevertheless preferred al-Hasan to him—until al-Hasan’s resolve slackened during the affair of Ibn al-Ashʿath.”

I say: He did not slacken; rather, he went out under compulsion.

Ayyūb said, “I saw Abū Shaʿthāʾ, and he was an intelligent man.” (4)

Qatādah remarked on the day Abū Shaʿthāʾ died, “Today the knowledge of the people of Basra has been buried”—or he said, “the scholar of Iraq.” (5)

Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah said, “I met the people of Basra, and their muftī was Jābir ibn Zayd.” (6)