Ḥabīb, and he, too, was one of the mawālī.

As for Yazīd, at that time he was a young man who was not yet known; and al-Ḍaḥḥāk—al-Zuhrī would not have had the least idea who he was—while Makḥūl was younger still.

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Rufayʿ said: ʿAṭāʾ was asked about a certain matter and replied, “I do not know.”
Someone said to him, “Will you not give us your opinion?”
He answered, “I am ashamed before Allah that people on earth should be judged according to my personal opinion.”

Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd said: We went in to Ibn Sūqah and he said, “Nephew, let me relate to you a report that may benefit you—for it has benefited me. ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ told us:

‘Those who came before you regarded any speech as superfluous apart from the Book of Allah, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, or speaking about the livelihood you cannot do without. Do you not realize that guardians are stationed over you—noble recorders—seated on the right and on the left? “Not a word does he utter but with him is a ready observer” (Q 50:17-18). Would not one of you feel ashamed if the page he dictated during the first part of his day were unrolled and it contained nothing concerning his hereafter?’ ”

Ibn Jurayj reported from ʿAṭāʾ: “A man may narrate a hadith to me, and I listen to him as though I had never heard it, whereas I had heard it before he was even born.” (1)

ʿAlī related from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, who said: “The mursal reports of Mujāhid are far dearer to me than the mursal reports of ʿAṭāʾ, because ʿAṭāʾ would take from every sort of narrator.”

Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād transmitted from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who said: “Among the mursal reports there is nothing weaker than the mursal reports of al-Ḥasan and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ; the two of them would take from anyone. The mursal reports of Ibn al-Musayyib are the soundest, and the mursal reports of Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī are unobjectionable.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm reported from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, who said: “ʿAṭāʾ was …”