your Lord, do not associate anything with Him, establish the prayer, pay the zakat, and obey the leaders; if their conduct is good, the benefit is yours, but if it is evil, the sin is theirs and you are clear of it. (1)

Al-Shaʿbi said to him, “You have lied.”

This is how al-Ḥākim recorded the report. He said: “Ibrāhīm ibn Muḍārib al-ʿUmari narrated to us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Mihrān narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb narrated to us.” It would seem that by the phrase “You have lied” he meant, “You have made a mistake.”

Qurād related: “Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq narrated to us, from Ṭāriq ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said:

‘I was sitting at the door of al-Shaʿbi when Jarīr ibn Yazīd ibn Jarīr al-Bajalī came by, and al-Shaʿbi asked that a cushion be brought for him.

We said to him, “You are surrounded by elders, yet this youth arrives and you call for a cushion for him?!”

He replied, “Yes. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) set a cushion before this man’s grandfather and said, ‘When the nobleman of a people comes to you, honor him.’ (2)”

Shabābah reported: “Yazīd ibn ʿIyāḍ narrated to us, from Mujālid, who said:

‘I was walking with Qays al-Arqab when we passed by al-Shaʿbi. Al-Shaʿbi said to me, ‘Fear Allah, lest He ignite you with His Fire.’

Qays said, ‘By Allah, I used to be in that house’—so he put it, meaning, it seems, that he had once held that view—
then he added, ‘I abandoned it for nothing but love of this world.’

I said to him, ‘If you are lying, may Allah curse you.’

He asked, ‘Do you know the followers of ʿAli?’

Al-Shaʿbi replied, ‘I recognized no jurists in Kūfah except the companions of ʿAbd Allah [ibn Masʿūd] before ʿAli arrived among us; indeed, the companions of ʿAbd Allah used to be called the lamps of the mosque, or the lanterns of the city.’

Qays said, ‘So you do not know the followers of ʿAli?’

He answered, ‘Indeed I do.’

He then asked, ‘Do you know al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar?’

He replied, ‘Yes, …’