Hujr; Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān Luwayn; ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn ʿĀṣim; ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Kilābī; ʿĪsā ibn Sālim al-Shāshī; al-Walīd ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Naḥḥās; Yaḥyā ibn Yūsuf al-Zimmī; and many others besides.
Ibn Maʿīn and al-Nasāʾī both judged him reliable.
Abū Ḥātim said, “Trustworthy, truthful; I know of no discredited report in his narration, and he is dearer to me than Zuhayr ibn Muḥammad.”
Abū Ḥātim also transmitted, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Maʿbad al-Raqqī, that someone said to ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, “We have heard that you possess a large number of hadith from Ibn ʿAqīl which you have neither narrated nor preserved, and that you finally discarded them.” He replied, “To discard them is dearer to me than for Allah—Exalted be He—to discard me.” He explained that he had heard part of that book in the company of a man he did not trust.
Ibn Saʿd commented, “ʿUbayd Allāh was trustworthy, truthful, and prolific in hadith; he might err on occasion, yet he was the most accurate transmitter from ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jazarī, and in his lifetime no one contested his legal verdicts.”
He died in al-Raqqah in 180 AH.
Others said that he was born in 101 AH.
His reports appear in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, in the commentary on Hā Mīm (1).
(1) Reported by al-Bukhari in his Sahih, 8/427, under the commentary on Surah Ham al-Sajdah (Fussilat), through the chain: Yusuf b. ‘Adi – ‘Ubayd Allah b. ‘Amr – Zayd b. Abi Anisa – al-Minhal – Sa‘id b. Jubayr. A man said to Ibn ‘Abbas: “I find in the Quran passages that seem to contradict one another.” He cited: “fa-la ansaba baynahum yawma-idhin wa-la yatasa’alun” (On that Day no family ties will remain between them, nor will they question one another, 23:101) and “wa-aqbala ba‘duhum ‘ala ba‘din yatasa’alun” (yet they will turn to one another asking questions, 37:27). Then he quoted: “wa-la yaktumuna-llaha hadithan” (They will not conceal any statement from Allah, 4:42) and “rabba-na ma kunna mushrikin” (Our Lord, we were not idolaters, 6:23), showing that in this verse they do conceal the truth. He continued: “a-ban-s-sama’a banaha … daha-ha” (Did He not build the heaven … and spread out the earth, 79:27-30), where the creation of the heaven precedes that of the earth; yet elsewhere He says: “a-innakum latakfuruna bi-lladhi khalaqa-l-arda fi yawmayn … ta’i‘in” (Do you really disbelieve in the One who created the earth in two days … willingly, 41:9-11), placing the creation of the earth before the heaven. He also recited: “wa-kana-llahu ghafuran rahiman, ‘azizan hakiman, sami‘an basiran” (Allah has always been All-Forgiving, Merciful; All-Mighty, Wise; All-Hearing, All-Seeing), which might be misunderstood as implying that He used to possess these attributes and then ceased. Ibn ‘Abbas explained: “There will be no family ties at the first blowing of the trumpet, then …” (the narration continues).