and Musʿab ibn Sallam, ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb, Hushaym ibn Bashir, Khalaf ibn Khalifah, and others of similar standing.
Those who transmitted from him include: Muslim, Abu Dawud, Abu Zurʿah, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Muhammad ibn Waddah al-Qurtubi, al-Husayn ibn Fahm, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn ʿAli al-Marwazi, Abu Yaʿla al-Mawsili, the elder Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Sufi, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Sarraj, Hamid ibn Shuʿayb al-Balkhi, Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi, and a great many others.
Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “He was a righteous man, marked by serenity and gentleness.”
ʿAli ibn al-Madini said: “Trustworthy (ṣadūq).”
Abu Shuʿayb al-Harrani said: “He was among the choicest of Allah’s servants; I heard from him.”
Muhammad ibn Makhlad reported: Al-ʿAbbas ibn Muhammad al-Ashhali narrated to us, my father narrated to me, saying:
“I passed by a graveyard and heard a soft murmur. There was Yahya ibn Ayyub in one of the burial pits, supplicating and weeping. He kept saying:
‘O comfort of the hearts of those who are cut off! O comfort of the hearts of the sinners! You have concealed their faults—so why should You not be the comfort of the obedient, when You have bestowed obedience upon them?’
“He would then resume his tears until I too was overcome. When he noticed me he said, ‘Come here; perhaps Allah has sent you only for some good.’”
Al-Husayn ibn Fahm said: “Yahya ibn Ayyub was reliable, devout, a man of sound Islam. He upheld the sunnah and reproached anyone who followed the doctrine of Jahm or anything contrary to the sunnah.”
He died on Sunday, the twelfth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal in the year 234 AH.
Musa ibn Harun said: “He passed away on the night of Sunday, after ten nights of Rabiʿ al-Awwal had elapsed in 234 AH. He also informed me that he had been born in 157 AH.”