Abu Ahmad (1) says in his work al-Kuna: Those who narrated from Ayyub include Ibn Sirin, Qatadah, Humayd al-Tawil, al-Aʿmash, ʿAmr ibn Dinar, Ibn ʿAwn, Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar, and Malik ibn Anas.
Al-Fakhr ʿAli ibn Ahmad—and others—told us: Ibn Tabarzad informed us, ʿAbd al-Wahhab the hadith master informed us, Abu Muhammad ibn Hazaramard informed us, Ibn Ḥababah informed us, al-Baghawi informed us, my uncle narrated to us, ʿArim narrated to us, and Ḥammad ibn Zayd narrated to us, saying, “Ayyub was born one year before the Plague of al-Jarif.”
Al-Baghawi said: “It has reached me that Ayyub was born in the year 68 AH.”
I say: the plague occurred in 69 AH.
It is reported that in Basra, during that plague, about two hundred thousand people died in the space of three days or so.
Using the same chain al-Baghawi said: ʿAbd al-Wahid ibn Ghiyath narrated to us, Ḥammad narrated to us; he said, “I saw Ayyub place his hand on his head and say, ‘Praise be to Allah who has spared me from polytheism; between it and me stands only Abu Tamimah.’”
Likewise, ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar narrated to us, Ḥammad narrated to us, Maymun al-Ghazzal narrated to us; he said, “Ayyub came and asked al-Hasan about certain matters. When he rose to leave, al-Hasan said to us, ‘This is the leader of the young men.’”
Sufyan al-Thawri reported that al-Hasan said about Ayyub, “He is the foremost of the youth of Basra.”
By this same chain al-Salt ibn Masʿud informed us, Sufyan narrated to us; I heard Hisham ibn ʿUrwah say, “I have never seen anyone in Basra like Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani, nor anyone in Kufa like Misʿar.”