62 – Ḥabbān ibn Hilāl Abū Ḥabīb al-Bāhilī, also said to be al-Kinānī, of Basra.
He was an imam, a ḥāfiẓ (hadith master), and a hujjah (decisive authority).
He narrated from Shuʿbah, Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, Salm ibn Zarīr, Hammām ibn Yaḥyā, Abān ibn Yazīd, Juwayriyah ibn Asmāʾ, Ḥammād ibn Salamah, and others.
Among those who transmitted from him were Aḥmad, Isḥāq al-Kawsaj, Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Abū Muḥammad al-Darāmī, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥunaynī (1), Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī, and many more besides.
He stopped relating ḥadith several years before his death; for that reason neither al-Bukhārī nor Abū Ḥātim heard from him.
He was declared reliable by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (2).
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: “He was trustworthy, an authoritative proof, firmly established; he abstained from narrating shortly before his death. He passed away in Basra, in the month of Ramaḍān, in the year 216 AH.” (3)
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal also remarked: “In Basra, Ḥabbān is the ultimate reference point for meticulous verification.” (4)