is reported to have said once: “You say, Abū Hurairah is profuse in narrating ḥadīth from the Holy Prophet; and you say, How is it that the Refugees (Muhājirīn) and the Helpers (Anṣār) do not narrate ḥadīth from the Holy Prophet like Abū Hurairah? The truth is that our brethren from among the Refugees were occupied in transacting business in the market and I used to remain with the Holy Prophet having filled my belly; so I was present when they were absent and I remembered what they forgot; and our brethren from among the Helpers were occupied with work on their lands, and I was a poor man from among the poor inmates of the Ṣuffa, so I retained what they forgot” (Bu. 34:1). Another Companion, Ṭalḥa, son of ‘Ubaid Allāh, is reported to have said of Abū Hurairah: “There is no doubt that he heard from the Holy Prophet what we did not hear. The reason was that he was a poor man who possessed nothing and was, therefore, a guest of the Holy Prophet.” Here is another report from Muḥammad ibn ‘Amāra: “He sat in a company of the older Companions of the Holy Prophet in which there were over ten men. Abū Hurairah began to relate a certain saying of the Holy Prophet, which some of them did not know, so they questioned him over and over again until they were satisfied. Again, he related to them a saying in the same manner and he did this over and over again, and I was convinced that Abū Hurairah had the best memory.”11 According to another report, people used to say in the lifetime of the Holy Prophet that Abū Hurairah narrated many sayings of the Holy Prophet. So Abū Hurairah enquired of one of them as to which chapters the Holy Prophet had recited in his night prayers the day before. The man being unable to answer the question, Abū Hurairah himself named the chapters12 which shows not only that he had a wonderful memory but also that he tried his utmost to remember everything.
‘Ā’ishah, the Holy Prophet’s wife, was also one of those who sought to preserve the practice of the Holy Prophet. She too had a marvelous memory, and was, in addition, gifted with a clear intellect, by virtue of which she refused to accept anything which she did not understand. There is a report about her, according to which “she never heard anything she did not recognize but she questioned about it again and again”.13 In other words, she accepted nothing, even
11 Bq. — FB. I, p. 191.
12 Bukhārī, 21:18.
13 Ibid., 3:35.