Abu Hurairah [may Allah be pleased with him]

Abu Huraira (RA) (may Allah be pleased with him) was the companion of the Prophet ﷺ who transmitted the single largest corpus of hadith in all of Islamic scholarship. His name before Islam is given by most scholars as Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr al-Dawsi al-Yamani. He came from Yemen, embraced Islam in the year of the Battle of Khaybar (7 AH), and immediately became one of the constant companions of the Prophet ﷺ in Medina. He was known for his extraordinary memory, his hunger-driven devotion (often going without food to remain near the Prophet ﷺ), and his subsequent generosity in sharing what he knew. After the Prophet's ﷺ death, he narrated freely to all who came to him and became the principal reference point for prophetic hadith in Medina. His narrations cover every conceivable subject: theology, worship, social relations, trade, punishment, eschatology, and the personal character of the Prophet ﷺ. The hadith regarding forty narrators — most famously the Forty Hadith of Imam al-Nawawi — draw heavily from his narrations. His narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are among the most frequently quoted texts in all of Islamic literature. He served briefly as governor of Bahrain under Umar (RA) and died in Medina or its environs at an advanced age. He is universally revered as the foremost hadith narrator among the companions.