ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd also said: “I asked Yaḥyā, ‘Which of the two do you prefer—Abū al-Zubayr or Ibn al-Munkadir?’” He replied, “Both are trustworthy.”

Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm remarked: “I accept from his narrations only those in which he explicitly says, ‘I heard Jābir.’ As for al-Layth’s transmission from him, I rely on it without restriction, for al-Layth took from him nothing but what he had heard directly from Jābir. Ibn Ḥazm’s main evidence is al-Layth’s own statement, yet that statement itself shows that what al-Layth possessed was merely a munāwala (a written text that had been handed over). Allah knows best whether he actually heard it from him or not.”

Ibn ʿAwn said: “Abū al-Zubayr is in no way inferior to ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ.”

I—(the author)—say: No one hesitated to narrate from him except Shuʿbah; men such as Ayyūb and Mālik did relate from him.

ʿAṭāʾ himself declared: “Abū al-Zubayr had the best memory among us.”

Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā reported: “I heard al-Shāfiʿī. A man adduced a hadith from Abū al-Zubayr as evidence against him, so he judged it weak and said, ‘Abū al-Zubayr needs a prop.’”

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād said: “I heard Hushaym say, ‘I heard from Abū al-Zubayr,’ whereupon Shuʿbah grabbed the note and tore it up.”

Suwayd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related: “Shuʿbah said to me, ‘Do not write from Abū al-Zubayr, for he does not perform the prayer well.’ Yet afterward he himself went and took hadith from him.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said: “I heard Shuʿbah saying over and over, ‘Any moment now he will come out, any moment now he will come out.’”

Abū al-Zubayr narrated to us, from Jābir, who said: “I was in the second row the day the Prophet ﷺ performed the funeral prayer for the Negus.”

Al-Muḥāribī and others said: “al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAmr al-Fuqaymī narrated to us, from Abū al-Zubayr, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: ‘When you see my community…’”