Mālik, when told, “You have narrated from him even though he was an Iraqi,” said, “No one has narrated to you from Ayyūb without Ayyūb being superior to him.”

The scholars and adherents of the Sunnah in Basra follow Ayyūb, Ibn ‘Awn and Yūnus ibn ‘Ubayd, and after them, Hammād ibn Zayd, Hammād ibn Salamah and others like them.

Al-Ash‘arī learned the substance of the doctrine of the Sunnah that he attributes to the adherents of the Sunnah and hadith in his Maqālāt (Doctrinal Views) from Zakariyyā ibn Yahyā al-Sājī, the imam and jurist who was Basra’s leading scholar in his day. Al-Sājī, in turn, learned it from the companions of Hammād and others. It contains expressions known to have been used by Hammād ibn Zayd