He narrated from his own father and from Abū Ṭuwālah.

Those who transmitted from him include Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿImrān al-ʿĀʾidhī, and others.

He had only a small number of narrations, for he was occupied with cultivating his own soul. He spoke the truth, commanded what is right, and—seeking Allah’s pleasure—was not deterred by the reproach of any critic. He used to reproach Imām Mālik for meeting with the ruling authorities.

Ibn ʿUyaynah—through a chain related from him by Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah—reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“People are soon going to travel, lashing the flanks of their camels, yet they will not find a scholar more knowledgeable than the Scholar of Medina.” (1)

Ibn ʿUyaynah said about this very ʿUmari: “He is the Scholar of Medina intended in the hadith.”

ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of his father, said: “Hārūn al-Rashīd once came to the ʿUmari riding a donkey and accompanied by a servant. The ʿUmari admonished him, whereupon the caliph wept until he fainted.”

Ibn Abī Uways said: “The ʿUmari wrote stern letters to Mālik, Ibn Abī Dhīʾb, and others, saying, ‘You are scholars who incline toward the worldly life, wear soft clothing, and have abandoned austerity.’ Ibn Abī Dhīʾb replied with an even harsher letter, whereas Mālik answered him with the measured response of a jurist.”

It is also said that the ʿUmari once admonished Hārūn al-Rashīd, and the caliph kept replying, “Yes, uncle!” When the ʿUmari left, al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn followed him with two pouches containing two thousand dinars. He returned them, saying, “He knows best whom they should reach.” He accepted only a single dinar and set out for Baghdad with it, but he disliked—