He was one of the trustworthy, dependable transmitters; his narrations are sound.

Aḥmad al-ʿIjli said, “Reliable, a righteous man.”

Al-Nasaʾi said, “Trustworthy.”

Abu Ḥātim al-Razi stated, “The most accurate of Anas ibn Malik’s students are: al-Zuhri, then Thabit, then Qatadah.”

Ibn ʿAdi remarked, “He was among the Followers of Basra—one of their ascetics and their hadith scholars.”

The leading imams recorded his narrations, and the person who reported the greatest number from him was Ḥammād ibn Salamah. His hadiths are straight and reliable so long as they are transmitted by a trustworthy narrator; any anomaly found in what is attributed to him actually stems from the person relating from him, for a number of unknown and weak transmitters did narrate from him.

ʿAli ibn al-Madini said: ʿAbd al-Raḥman—or Bahz—related to me from Ḥammād ibn Salamah who said,

“I had heard that storytellers do not preserve hadith accurately, so I would deliberately mix up the reports when presenting them to Thabit: I would attribute what belonged to Anas to Ibn Abi Layla and vice-versa, confusing them for him, yet he would repeat them back in perfect order.”

Ḥammād ibn Zayd reported from his father that Anas said, “Goodness has its people, and this Thabit is one of the keys to goodness.”

ʿAffan related from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, who said,

“Thabit used to supplicate: ‘O Allah, if You have granted anyone the privilege of praying in his grave, then grant me the privilege of praying in my grave.’ It is said that this prayer was answered for him and that, as has been reported, he was seen after his death performing prayer in his grave.”

ʿAli ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Waqid narrated from his father, from Thabit: “ʿAbd Allah ibn Mughaffal told me about the affair of al-Hudaybiyyah, and I kept company with Anas ibn Malik for forty years and never saw anyone more devoted in worship than he!”

It is said that Banānah was the mother of Saʿd ibn Luʾayy ibn Ghalib.

There is a difference of opinion regarding the year of Thabit’s death. Jaʿfar ibn Sulayman—in a report cited by al-Bukhari in his Middle History, transmitted through Muḥammad ibn Maḥbub from one of his shaykhs from him—said: “Thabit died…”