Asim bin Muhammad narrates from his father, who said: I saw Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) come out on Friday, take hold of the two knobs of the pulpit while standing, and say: "Abu al-Qasim, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), the truthful and the one confirmed as truthful, narrated to us." Then he would keep narrating hadith until, when he heard the door of the private chamber being opened for the imam to come out for the prayer, he would sit down. This hadith has an authentic (sahih) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it. I have deliberately begun the virtues of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) with his memorisation of the hadith of the Chosen Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the testimony of the Companions and the Successors to that, because everyone who has sought to memorise hadith, from the beginning of Islam until this age of ours, is his follower, since he was the first of them and the most deserving of the title of memorisation.

It is narrated from Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Ishaq that he mentioned Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: "He was among those of his (peace and blessings be upon him) Companions who narrated abundantly with sound chains, (narrations) which spread among his narrations and the narrations of the other Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." Abu Bakr said: "And Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) also narrated from him, despite his very high rank and the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed with him at the time of the Hijrah."

Ash'ath bin Abi al-Sha'tha' narrates: I heard my father say: "I came to Madinah and saw Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) narrating from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), so I said: You narrate from Abu Hurayrah when you hold the rank of having been host to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)? He replied: 'Narrating through Abu Hurayrah is dearer to me than narrating directly from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) myself.'" Imam Abu Bakr said: "It was out of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah's (may Allah be pleased with him) eagerness for knowledge that, for the sake of acquiring knowledge, he would narrate even from those who had narrated fewer hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) than he had; thus he narrated from Sayyiduna Sahl bin Sa'd al-Sa'idi (may Allah be pleased with him) as well."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "None of you should point a sword at his brother, for perhaps Satan may pull (the sword) in his hand and he would fall into one of the pits of the Fire." Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that he heard this hadith from Sayyiduna Sahl bin Sa'd al-Sa'idi (may Allah be pleased with him), who heard it from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Imam Abu Bakr said: Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah's (may Allah be pleased with him) eagerness for knowledge drove him to hear a report that he had not heard directly from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even from someone who narrated less than he did. And the only people who attack the hadith of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) are those whose hearts Allah has blinded, so that they do not understand the meanings of the hadith. Such people are either a "Mu'attil Jahmi", who finds those hadith contrary to his disbelieving creed and so reviles Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) and accuses him of things Allah Almighty has kept him free of, in order to deceive the common people into thinking that his hadith do not establish proof. Or he is a "Khariji", who considers it lawful to raise the sword against the Ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and does not accept obedience to any caliph or imam; when he finds the narrations of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) contrary to his misguided way and finds no means of rejecting them with proof and evidence, his only recourse is to attack him. Or he is a "Qadari", who has separated himself from Islam and declared disbelievers those Muslims who believe in Allah's eternal decree; when he sees the narrations of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) affirming divine decree, he has no proof for his position, which is founded on disbelief and polytheism, except to say that the hadith of Abu Hurayrah cannot be used as evidence. Or he is an "ignorant one" who claims (knowledge of) fiqh but seeks it from the wrong places; when he hears a hadith that goes against his preferred school, he speaks against the person of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), but if the same hadith agrees with his school, he presents it as proof. These misguided sects denied those hadith of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) whose meanings they could not understand; by the will of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, I will mention some of them. At this point Imam Abu Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned the hadith of Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that I have mentioned before, the hadith about a woman being punished because of a cat, the hadith about praying after Jumu'ah together with the hadith of Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that appears to conflict with it, and the hadith about performing ablution from what has been cooked on fire; mentioning them and discussing them would take long. Imam al-Hakim said: By the will of Allah, I mention the senior Companions who narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). They include Zayd bin Thabit, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, Abdullah bin Abbas, Abdullah bin Umar, Abdullah bin al-Zubayr, Ubayy bin Ka'b, Jabir bin Abdullah, Sayyidah Aishah, al-Miswar bin Makhramah, Uqbah bin al-Harith, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, Anas bin Malik, al-Sa'ib bin Yazid, Abu Rafi' the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), Abu Umamah bin Sahl, Abu al-Tufayl, Abu Nadrah al-Ghifari, Abu Ruhm al-Ghifari, Shaddad bin al-Had, Abu Hadrad Abdullah bin Hadrad al-Aslami, Abu Razin al-Uqayli, Wathilah bin al-Asqa', Qabisah bin Dhu'ayb, Amr bin al-Hamiq, al-Hajjaj al-Aslami, Abdullah bin Ukaym, al-Agharr al-Juhani and al-Sharid bin Suwayd (may Allah be pleased with them all). The number of Companions who narrated from him thus reaches 28. As for the Successors, there is none among them more eminent, more famous, more honoured or more learned than the students of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), and mentioning them here would take long because of their great number. May Allah protect us from opposing the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), the chosen Companions, the imams of the Successors and the imams of the Muslims after them, in the matter of the one who preserved the laws of the religion for us, namely Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) promised us the expedition to India. So if I am martyred in it, I will be among the best of the martyrs, and if I return (alive), then I will be Abu Hurayrah the freed one (freed from the Fire of Hell).

Mus'ab bin Abdullah al-Zubayri narrates that the name of Abu Mahdhurah was Aws bin Mi'yar bin Wahb bin Du'mus bin Sa'd bin Jumah, and his mother was from the tribe of Khuza'ah. Ibrahim al-Harbi said that Mus'ab al-Zubayri stated it this way, while another view is that his name was Samurah bin Mi'yar.

Khalifah bin Khayyat said that the name of Abu Mahdhurah was Aws bin Mi'yar bin Lawdhan bin Rabi'ah. Shabab said that, according to Abu al-Yaqzan, Aws bin Mi'yar was killed as a disbeliever on the day of Badr, and Abu Mahdhurah's actual name was Salman bin Samurah. Shabab said that according to one view his name was Samurah bin Mi'yar.

Muhammad bin Umar (al-Waqidi) said that the name of Abu Mahdhurah was Aws bin Mi'yar bin Lawdhan bin Rabi'ah bin Urayj bin Sa'd bin Jumah. He had a full brother named Unays, who was killed as a disbeliever on the day of Badr. Abu Mahdhurah died in Makkah - may Allah Almighty protect it - in the year 59 AH. He did not emigrate, but always remained resident in Makkah.

Muhammad bin Rafi' al-Qushayri narrates: I asked Abu Sa'id bin Abi Mahdhurah, the muezzin of the Sacred Mosque, about the name of his grandfather, and he said that his name was Mi'yar bin Muhayriz.

It is narrated from Safiyyah bint Tajrah that Sayyiduna Abu Mahdhurah (may Allah be pleased with him) had a long lock of hair at the front of his head; when he sat down he would let it hang and it would reach the ground. People said to him: "Will you not shave it off?" He replied: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) passed his blessed hand over it, so I will not shave it off until I die." And he did not cut it until his death.