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, Sahl ibn Sa'd, Abu Musa, Ibn Abbas, Abu Hurayra, Anas, Sulayman ibn Surad 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}.