Abū Hurayrah

Life

Abū Hurayrah was poor. He did not have land, he did not have a family in Madinah, and he slept on the dust of the Prophet's ﷺ mosque. He dedicated himself to one thing: listening. While other companions worked their fields or travelled to trade, Abū Hurayrah sat in the Prophet's ﷺ presence, memorising everything he said.

The Prophet ﷺ knew what he was doing and blessed it. He extended his cloak to Abū Hurayrah once and said: after today, you will not forget what I say. And he did not. Abū Hurayrah narrated 5,374 hadith, far more than any other companion. Modern scholars verified his reliability against the testimony of dozens of other narrators and found him meticulous.