—al-Bāqir. His mother was Umm ʿAbd Allah, the daughter of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī. He was a distinguished tābiʿī, of lofty rank and vast learning—one of this community’s luminaries in knowledge, practice, leadership, and honor. A faction of the Shīʿah claim that he is one of the Twelve Imams, yet the man himself was not on their path, nor did he tread their course or embrace the notions that took shape in their minds, fancies, and imaginings. Rather, he was among those who gave precedence to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, and this is soundly reported from him. He also said: “I never met anyone of my household but that he loved and pledged allegiance to the two of them.” (may Allah be pleased with him).

He narrated ḥadīth from more than one Companion, and a number of the leading tābiʿīn and others transmitted from him. Among those who related from him were his son Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, Rabīʿah, al-Aʿmash, Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, al-Awzāʿī, al-Aʿraj—who was older than he—Ibn Jurayj, ʿAṭāʾ, ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, and al-Zuhrī.

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah reported, on the authority of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, that he said: “My father narrated to me, and at that time he was the best of the Prophet Muḥammad’s descendants on the face of the earth.” (1)

Al-ʿIjlī said: “He was a trustworthy Madinan tābiʿī.”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (2) said: “He was reliable, possessed of abundant [knowledge and] ḥadīth. According to one opinion, he died in this very year; others say in the year before it; others, in the year after it, or the one following that, or two years later. Allah knows best. He had passed the age of seventy.”

Another view holds that he did not exceed sixty years. Allah knows best (3).