Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn once spoke of ʿUtbah al-Ghulām and of his companion Yaḥyā al-Wāsiṭī, saying, “It is as though the prophets themselves had brought them up.”
ʿUtbah said, “Whoever truly knows Allah will love Him, and whoever loves Him will obey Him.”
He also said, “I weep only over my own shortcomings.”
Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm related, “I once saw ʿUtbah, and it was said that even the birds would respond to him.”
It is reported that when he set out on campaign he instructed, “Do not open my house.” After he was killed, they opened it and found inside a grave already dug and a pair of iron shackles.
- al-Walīd ibn Kathīr al-Makhzūmī, their freedman, of Medina*
A ḥāfiẓ (master memorizer).
He transmitted hadith from: Bushayr ibn Yasār; Saʿīd ibn Abī Hind; Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥunayn; al-Aʿraj; ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb; Saʿīd al-Maqburī; Maʿbad ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik and his brother Muḥammad; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Jaʿfar; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām; Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAṭāʾ; Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥalḥalah; and several others.
Those who narrated from him include: Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Abū Usāmah, Ibn Abī Fudayk, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, and a number of others.
He was a historian, a man of vast learning, reliable, and well versed in the accounts of the military campaigns.