Ubayy ibn Ka'b

Ubayy ibn Ka'b ibn Qays of Banu al-Najjar al-Ansari, kunya Abu al-Mundhir and Abu al-Tufayl; Ibn Hajar calls him "master of the reciters" ¹. He was of the people of the second Aqaba, and witnessed Badr and all the campaigns ¹.

Ibn Hajar relates that the Prophet said to him: "may knowledge be sweet to you, Abu al-Mundhir", and told him: "God has commanded me to recite to you" ¹. Umar used to call him "master of the Muslims" and say to him: "recite, Ubayy"; he asked him about cases and turned to him on hard questions ¹. Masruq counted him among the six men of fatwa ¹.

Al-Waqidi said he was the first to write for the Prophet and the first to write at a document's end "wrote So-and-so son of So-and-so"; he was of medium height, white-bearded, his greyness unhidden ¹.

Of the Companions, Umar, Abu Ayyub, Ubada ibn al-Samit (may God be pleased with him), Sahl ibn Sa'd, Abu Musa, Ibn Abbas, Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), Anas, Sulayman ibn Surad (may God be pleased with him) and others related from him, and the imams brought his hadiths in their Sahihs ¹.

Ahmad, Abu Ya'la and Ibn Abi al-Dunya relate — Ibn Hibban authenticated it — from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that the Prophet was asked about illnesses and said: "expiations" — Ubayy said: Messenger of God, even when little? He said: "even a thorn and what is above it" — so Ubayy prayed never to be free of fever until he died, so long as it did not bar him from hajj, 'umra, jihad or the congregational prayer ².

Ibn Hajar transmits from Ibn Ma'in that he died in year twenty or nineteen, and from al-Waqidi that Ubayy's family and companions say year twenty-two, and that Umar said: "today the master of the Muslims died" — then al-Waqidi mentions those who say he died in Uthman's caliphate in year thirty and calls it "the firmest of the sayings" ¹. Ibn Abd al-Barr said the majority hold he died in Umar's caliphate; Abu Nu'aym authenticated that he died in Uthman's caliphate in year thirty, arguing from Zar ibn Hubaysh's meeting him in Uthman's caliphate; Ibn Hibban said year twenty-two; al-Baghawi relates from al-Hasan that he died a week before Uthman's killing ^{1 2}.