As a prominent traditionist and theologian, Zurārah played an important role in developing the Shia thought.
Some reports say that his father was a Byzantine monk who was captured and sold into slavery in a Muslim territory to someone from the Shaybānī clan, which Zurārah remained affixed to.
[10] He was from Al Ain, a famous and influential family in Kufa, which was affiliated to the BaniShiban tribe through the Wala Treaty.Considering the date of Zarara's death and the fact that Abu GhalibZarari considered his age to be seventy years.
[11] Zurārah’s intellectual activities in the field of scholastic theology greatly strengthened the cause of Jaʿfar al-Sadiq and later that of Musa al-Kazim.
↵Zurārah and his circle promulgated their views on almost every question of what we now call scholastic philosophy, such as the attributes of God, His Essence and His Actions, His Intention or Will, and the human capacity.
The impression we get of Zurārah from the sources, especially from Kashi, is that he played a very important role in the development of legitimist Shiʿi thought and contributed a great deal to the formation of the Imamiyya creed.
[2] Among Zurārah’s pupils, who were all devoted followers of Jaʿfar, were his own sons Ḥasan, Ḥusayn, and ʿUbaydullāh; his brother Ḥumrān, the grammarian and one of the foremost companions of Al-Baqir.