Qatada ibn Di'ama

Qatada ibn Di'ama al-Sadusi was an early Muslim scholar of the Tabi'un, the generation that followed the Prophet Muhammad's Companions. He belonged to the Arab tribe of Sadus and lived in Basra, in southern Iraq. The biographical tradition reports that he was born blind around 60 AH (c. 680 CE), yet became one of the most celebrated memorizers of his age: hadith (reports of the Prophet's words and deeds), Qur'anic commentary (tafsir), Arabic poetry, and tribal genealogy were said to be preserved entirely in his memory.

He is best known as a pupil and companion of al-Hasan al-Basri, the great preacher of Basra, and as a transmitter of reports from the Companion Anas ibn Malik. Later collections of Qur'anic exegesis, above all that of al-Tabari (d. 923 CE), preserve a large body of interpretations on his authority, making him an important early voice in the formation of tafsir.

Sunni rijal (narrator-criticism) scholars generally graded him reliable, though some biographers reported a charge that he held Qadari views — the position, debated in early Islam, emphasizing human free will against strict predestination (qadar). The tradition treats this as a contested allegation rather than settled fact, and his hadith were widely accepted.

Reports gathered by later biographers such as al-Mizzi and al-Dhahabi state that he died of plague at Wasit around 117 AH (735 CE); a minority give 118 AH. He would have been in his mid-fifties.