al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ of Basra, then Ibn Abī ʿArūbah.

I add: He died while campaigning in the land of India, and he is cited in the Jaʿdiyyāt (1).

ʿAlī said: Al-Rabīʿ related to us from al-Ḥasan, who stated, “Retreating from the battle-line is not one of the major sins; that applied only on the Day of Badr.”

ʿAbbās reported: I asked Ibn Maʿīn about al-Rabīʿ and al-Mubārak. He replied, “The two of them are very close; there is no fault in either.”

Muḥammad ibn Salām al-Jumaḥī said that al-Wathīq ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī remarked, “I have never seen a man darker in complexion (2) than al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ.”

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī observed: “When al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ narrated, he would only say, ‘I heard al-Ḥasan,’ or ‘I asked al-Ḥasan.’”

Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd said, “I wrote down from him a ḥadith of Abū Naḍrah on ṣarf (currency exchange); it is the finest of them all, and a ḥadith of ʿAṭāʾ—from Jābir—on the rites of ḥajj in full, transmitted through ʿIkrimah.” I asked him, “Did he transmit anything else from him?” He answered, “No.”

Ghassān ibn al-Muḍaffaḍ al-Ghallābī related: “I heard someone mention that al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ was in Ahwāz with a companion when a woman accosted them. The shaykh began to weep. His companion asked, ‘What makes you weep?’ He replied, ‘A woman would not have entertained hopes in two elderly men unless she had already seen elders before us comply with her wishes; that is why I weep.’”

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “The encounter at Bārnil (3) took place in the year 160 AH, and in it al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ died—may Allah have mercy on him.”