together with—despite his seniority—Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān, Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Bukht, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAjlān, Ibn Isḥāq, Mālik, al-Layth, Waraqāʾ ibn ʿUmar, Sufyān al-Thawrī, Zāʾidah, Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥizāmī, Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, and many others besides them.
He was declared reliable by Aḥmad and by Ibn Maʿīn.
Harb ibn Ismāʿīl reported from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who said:
“Sufyān used to call Abū al-Zinād the Commander of the Believers in ḥadith.”
Aḥmad also said, “He is superior to al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, to Suhayl, and to Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr.”
Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī related: “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal informed me that Abū al-Zinād was more knowledgeable than Rabīʿah.”
Aḥmad ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Maryam transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, who said, “Reliable, an unimpeachable proof.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī stated: “After the senior Successors, there was no one in Medina more learned than Ibn Shihāb, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, Abū al-Zinād, and Bukayr al-Ashajj.”
Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ said: “Abū al-Zinād met Ibn ʿUmar and Anas ibn Mālik.”
Al-ʿIjlī remarked: “A Successor, trustworthy; he heard from Anas.”
Abū Ḥātim said: “Reliable, a jurist, sound in narration, a man of the Sunnah; his ḥadith constitutes proof when it is transmitted by trustworthy narrators.”
Al-Bukhārī said: “The soundest of all chains is Mālik, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar; and the soundest chain for the narrations of Abū Hurayrah is Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah.”
Al-Layth related from ʿAbd Rabbiḥ ibn Saʿīd: “Abū al-Zinād entered the Prophet’s Mosque—Allah bless him and grant him peace—followed by throngs of disciples, meaning students of knowledge, in numbers like those that attend a ruler. One would ask him about an obligatory duty, and another….”