Answering the Critics

Abu Hurayrah is the most criticised of the Companions, because he narrated the most. Some said it was impossible to have heard so much in about four years. He answered this himself: the Muhajirun were busy with trade and the Ansar with their land, while he stayed close to the Prophet ﷺ (Sahih al-Bukhari 118). The count of around 5,300 narrations in the collection of Baqi ibn Makhlad includes every variant and repeated wording, so the number of distinct reports is far smaller, and many of them he heard from other Companions. Talhah ibn 'Ubaydillah, one of the ten promised Paradise, said that he had no doubt Abu Hurayrah had heard what the others had not (Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3837).

Another criticism is that 'A'ishah once disagreed with him. She did correct him on several points, and some sources say she was surprised at how much he narrated (Sahih Muslim 2493). The scholars who studied this concluded that she was not accusing him of lying but pointing out what she believed was his memory or understanding in particular cases, in the same way she corrected other Companions. Ibn 'Umar and others, who also knew him well, considered him a reliable authority. More than eight hundred scholars are said to have narrated from him.

A further point concerns reports he related which seem to come from earlier scriptures through Ka'b al-Ahbar, such as the one on the days of creation (Sahih Muslim 2789). Some early scholars such as al-Bukhari in his Tarikh, and later Ibn Kathir, considered that report to be in fact from Ka'b, not the Prophet ﷺ. This is a scholarly judgement on one report and not on the man. Critics outside Ahl al-Sunnah, including some Shi'a writers of recent times, have argued more broadly against him. Sunni scholars such as al-Mu'allimi and M. M. al-A'zami have answered those arguments in detail, and the debate is a continuing one.