He enjoyed a distinguished position with Abu ʿAbd Allah; he transmitted legal questions from Imam Ahmad that no one else recorded, and in turn was cited by ʿAbdallah ibn Imam Ahmad and others. See his biography in: Tarikh Baghdad by al-Khatib, vol. 11, p. 115; Tabaqat al-Hanabila by Ibn Abi Yaʿla, vol. 1, p. 241; and al-Minhaj al-Ahmad by al-ʿIlmi, vol. 1, pp. 435–436. This risālah (treatise), as Sezgin notes in his History of Arab Heritage, vol. 1/3, p. 228—under the heading “Fiqh”—contains the opinions of Imam Ahmad; the manuscript is preserved at the al-Zahiriyya in Damascus, and part of it appears in Tabaqat al-Hanabila (Ibn Abi Yaʿla, 1:241–246). This particular transmission from Imam Ahmad is found in Tabaqat al-Hanabila, vol. 1, p. 241. (1) The hadith—subject to slight verbal variations—is narrated by Muslim from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best of my ummah is the generation in which I was sent.” It is also narrated from ʿImrān ibn Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) with the formula: “The best of this ummah is the generation in which I was sent.” References: – Sahih Muslim 4:1963, 1965 (Kitāb Faḍāʾil al-Ṣaḥābah, chapter “The Virtue of the Companions, then Those Who Follow Them, then Those Who Follow Them,” hadiths 213, 215). – Abū Dāwūd, Sunan 5:44 (Kitāb al-Sunnah, chapter “The Virtue of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah,” hadith 4657). – Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan 4:500–501 (Kitāb al-Fitān, chapter “On the Third Generation,” hadith 2222). – Imam Ahmad, Musnad 4:440; 5:357. The hadith is also transmitted in varying wordings by other Companions. For further parallels see: – Sahih al-Bukhari 3:151 (Kitāb al-Shahādāt, chapter “One Should Not Testify to an Unjust Verdict After Witnessing”), 4:189 (Kitāb Aṣḥāb al-Nabī, chapter “Virtues of the Prophet’s Companions”), and 7:173 (Kitāb al-Riqāq, chapter “Warning Against the Allure of the World and Rivalry in It”). – Sunan Ibn Mājah 2:791 (Kitāb al-Aḥkām, chapter “The Dislike of Testifying for One Who Was Not Summoned,” hadith 2362). – Al-Sunnah by Ibn Abi ʿĀṣim 2:627–629.