He related traditions from: ʿAmmār, Abū Hurayrah, Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr, ʿĀʾishah, Umm Salamah, and others.
Transmitters from him included: a group among whom were his sons Salamah, ʿAbd Allah, ʿAbd al-Malik, and ʿUmar; his freedman Sumayy; ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī; ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; ʿAmr ibn Dīnār; Mujāhid; and al-Zuhrī.
He was born during the caliphate of ʿUmar, and he was called “the monk of Quraysh” (1) on account of the abundance of his prayer. He was blind (2), fasted continuously, and was of exceptional trustworthiness, integrity, legal understanding, and sound transmission. ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān used to honor him and acknowledge his virtue, saying, “At times I resolve to do something against the people of Madinah because of the ill effects we have seen from them, but then I remember Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, feel ashamed before him, and abandon the matter for his sake.” He possessed many other merits (3).
Abū Dāwūd said: “He had gone blind, and whenever he prostrated he would place his hand in a basin because of an ailment he felt” (4). The soundest view is that he died in this year, though some say the year before and others the year after; Allah knows best.
[I say: One of the poets versified two lines in which he mentioned the seven jurists, saying:
“Indeed, whoever does not follow the leading Imams—his share is but ink (5), cut off from the truth.
So take them: ʿUbayd Allah, ʿUrwah, Qāsim,
Saʿīd, Abū Bakr, Sulaymān, and Khārijah (6).”]
In this same year there also died: al-Fuḍayl ibn Zayd al-Raqāshī (7), one of the ascetics of Basrah, a man of very many merits and virtues. He said, “Let not the people distract you from your own soul, for in the end the matter will come down to you alone, without them. Do not while away your day with ‘this and that,’ for everything you say is being recorded against you.”
He also said, “I have never seen anything better in pursuit, nor quicker to overtake, than a recent good deed for an old sin.”
Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf al-Zuhrī (8) was one of the jurists of Madinah, an eminent scholar, and he had