يونس بن عبيد

Yunus b. Ubayd, the imam, exemplar, and proof Abu Abdallah of Basra, their client, the memoriser; he saw Anas and heard al-Hasan, Ibn Sirin, Muhammad, Ibrahim al-Taymi, Yahya b. Hilal, Ziyad b. Jubayr, Nafi' al-Umari, and others, while Shu'ba, the two Hammads, the two Sufyans, Abd al-Warith, Bishr b. al-Mufaddal, Hushaym, and Ibn Uluyya narrated from him — one of the godfearing chief imams, who used to say "I never wrote anything". ¹

Abu Usama said "I never saw anyone more learned than Yunus b. Ubayd nor more avid for knowledge"; Umayya b. Bistam reports a woman bringing Yunus a silk-lined cloak: he asked "how much?", she said five hundred, he said "it is worth more", and kept raising until it reached a thousand; al-Nadr b. Shumayl reports that Yunus the cloth-merchant bought goods for thirty thousand, asked the seller whether he knew their true worth, then returned the thirty thousand; and Hisham b. Hassan said "I never saw anyone seek God's face through learning except Yunus b. Ubayd". ¹

Mu'adh b. Mu'adh prayed over him in 139 AH. ²