It was also reported that he once joined a funeral procession and lost consciousness four times.

Khalid ibn Daʿlaj said, “We were with ʿAṭāʾ al-Salīmī when someone informed him, ‘Ibn ʿAlī has executed four hundred people of Damascus for a single murder.’ He drew a long breath—‘Ah!’—and then fell lifeless.”

It was further said that whenever lightning, wind, and thunder appeared he would remark, “This is striking you on my account; if I were to die, people would be at ease.”

Numerous stories are told of ʿAṭāʾ’s fear of Allah and the harsh way he judged himself.

It was said that he died sometime after 140 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.

22 — Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah, Abū Usāmah al-Jazarī (ʿ)

The imam, ḥāfiẓ (hadith master), and absolutely reliable authority, Abū Usāmah al-Jazarī, al-Ruhāwī, al-Ghanawī, a client of the family of Ghanī ibn Aʿṣur.

He was the leading scholar of al-Jazīrah in his era and belonged to the same generation as Shuʿbah and Mālik, yet he died early.

He passed away in middle age during the Umayyad period.

He narrated from al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif, ʿAmr ibn Murrah, ʿAdī ibn Thābit, Saʿīd al-Maqburī, Nuʿaym al-Mujmir, Abū Isḥāq al-Sabiʿī, and many others—even some of his own peers.

Those who transmitted from him include Abū Ḥanīfah, ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, Mālik ibn Anas, Maʿqil ibn ʿUbayd Allah al-Jazarī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Khālid ibn Yazīd, ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAmr, and others.

Yahyā ibn Maʿīn and other scholars rated him trustworthy.