He lived a life of praise, obedient to God, ever following the command of his Companion—whether he halted or set out. (1)

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah (2) also narrated it: “A shaykh of ours related to us, from Mujālid, from ʿĀmir, who said: I asked Ibn ʿAbbās—or Ibn ʿAbbās was asked—‘Who among the people was the first to embrace Islam?’ He replied, ‘Have you not heard the lines of Ḥassān ibn Thābit?’ and he quoted them.”

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī transmitted the same report from Mujālid, from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī: “I asked Ibn ʿAbbās,” and he mentioned it.

Abu al-Qāsim al-Baghawī (3) said: “Suraij ibn Yūnus told me; Yūsuf ibn al-Mājishūn (4) narrated to us, saying, ‘I met our elders—Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān, and ʿUthmān ibn Muḥammad—and none of them doubted that the first of the people to accept Islam was Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him.’ ”

I say: The same was asserted by Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, and Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, and it is the view famous among the majority of Ahl al-Sunnah.

Ibn ʿAsākir (5) related from Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah that they both said, “He was not the first of them to become Muslim, but his Islam was the best of theirs.” Saʿd added, “Five people believed before him.”

In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (6), through the narration of Hammām ibn al-Ḥārith from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, it is reported: “I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he had with him only five slaves, two women, and Abu Bakr.”

Imām Aḥmad (7) and Ibn Mājah (8) narrated—through ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Nujūd, from Zirr, from Ibn Masʿūd—who said: “The first to make their Islam public were seven: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Abu Bakr, ʿAmmār, his mother Sumayyah, Suhayb, Bilāl, and al-Miqdād. As for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Allah protected him through his uncle; as for Abu Bakr, Allah protected him through his clan. The rest were seized by the idolaters, who clad them in coats of iron and left them to bake in the sun. Each of them eventually yielded to what the idolaters wanted—except Bilāl. He deemed his life insignificant for Allah’s sake, and his people likewise regarded him as insignificant. They seized him and handed him over to the boys, who dragged him through the ravines of Mecca while he kept saying, ‘One, One.’ ”

A similar account was transmitted by al-Thawrī from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid, in mursal form.