It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that he heard Sayyiduna Hatib bin Abi Balta'ah (may Allah be pleased with him) say that on the day of Uhud he reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) at a time when he (peace and blessings be upon him) was in severe pain (from his wounds). At that time Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) had a shield in his hand containing water, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was washing his blessed face with that water. Sayyiduna Hatib (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: Who did this to you? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Utbah bin Abi Waqqas; he struck me with a stone, which wounded my face and broke my front tooth." Hatib said: I said: I heard a caller on the mountain crying out that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) had been martyred, so I ran (restlessly) towards you, and (out of fear) it felt as if my soul had left me. Then I asked: Which way did Utbah go? He (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed in the direction he had gone. So I went after him until I caught him, and I struck off his head with a blow of the sword. Then I came down and took his head, his belongings and his horse, and came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) gave all of it to me and supplicated for me, saying: "Radiya Allahu anka, radiya Allahu anka (May Allah be pleased with you, may Allah be pleased with you)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that a slave of Sayyiduna Hatib (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) complaining about him and said: O Prophet of Allah, Hatib will surely enter the Fire (Hell). The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You are wrong; he will never enter it, for he took part in (the battles of) Badr and Hudaybiyah." This hadith is sahih on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin Hatib bin Abi Balta'ah (may Allah be pleased with him) that his father (Sayyiduna Hatib, may Allah be pleased with him) wrote a letter to the disbelievers of Quraysh while he was residing in Madinah with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he had taken part in the Battle of Badr. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) called Sayyiduna Ali and Sayyiduna al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with them both) and said: "Go, both of you, until you overtake a woman who has a letter, and bring that letter to me." So they both set off and caught up with her, and said to her: Give us the letter that you have. And they made it clear to her that they would not leave her until they had her remove all her clothes to be searched. At this she said: Are you two not Muslim men? They said: Certainly, but the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has informed us that you have a letter. When she was certain that she could not escape from them, she took the letter out of the knot of hair on her head and handed it to them. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) called Hatib and read the letter out to him. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "Do you recognise this letter?" He said: Yes. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "What led you to this act?" He said: My children and close relatives were there, while I was a stranger among you Quraysh. At this Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah, permit me to kill Hatib. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No, he took part in the Battle of Badr, and what do you know? Perhaps Allah Almighty looked at the people of Badr and said: Do whatever you wish, for I have forgiven you."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Urwah bin al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with him) that Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b bin Qays bin Ubayd bin Zayd bin Mu'awiyah bin Amr bin Malik bin al-Najjar was among the Companions who took part in the Battle of Badr.

Khalifah bin Khayyat mentioned the same lineage as above and added to it that the mother of Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him) was Suqaylah (while according to others her name was Suhaylah) bint al-Aswad bin Haram bin Amr bin Zayd Manat bin Adi bin Amr bin Malik bin al-Najjar, and she was the paternal aunt of Sayyiduna Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him).

Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Numayr narrates that Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him) died during the caliphate of Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) in the year 22 AH.

Muhammad bin Umar also mentioned a similar lineage and added that he was among the seventy Ansar who attended the Pledge of Aqabah, and that he used to write down the revelation for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). There is disagreement about the time of his death: one view is that he died during the caliphate of Sayyiduna Umar in the year 22 AH, while according to another view he died during the caliphate of Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) in the year 30 AH, and this is the more reliable view, because Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) had ordered him to compile the Qur'an.

Utayy al-Sa'di narrates: I saw Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him); the hair of his head and beard was completely white, and he did not apply dye (khidab).

Masruq narrates that among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), those expert in the office of judgeship (qada) were six: Sayyiduna Umar, Sayyiduna Ali, Sayyiduna Abdullah, Sayyiduna Ubayy, Sayyiduna Zayd and Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with them). This is how it was narrated to us, but in most narrations, and the more authentic ones, Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) is mentioned in place of Sayyiduna Abu Musa.

Abu Mushir narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him) the title "Sayyid al-Ansar" (leader of the Ansar), and before his death people had begun calling him "Sayyid al-Muslimin" (leader of the Muslims).