Al-Awzaʿi and Saʿid relate from him: “Even if keeping company with people holds some benefit, withdrawal from them is the safer way.”

Abu al-Malih al-Raqqi, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah of Syria, said:
“I once sat with Makḥul and he asked, ‘With what face will you meet your Lord when He has made you disinclined to one matter and yet you crave it, and has urged you toward another and yet you spurn it?’”

Al-Walid ibn Muslim reports from Saʿid that Makḥul was once presented with ten thousand dinars; he began giving each of his companions fifty dinars—the price of a horse.

Al-Walid ibn Muslim also transmits from Ibn Jabir: “Yazid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik approached Makḥul while he was sitting with his circle. When we saw him, we started to make room, but Makḥul said, ‘Let him sit wherever he finds a place; let him learn humility.’”

Saʿid ibn ʿAbd al-Aziz said: “In al-Walid’s time they would delay the prayer and require people to swear that they had not yet prayed. ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Zakariyya came, was put under oath that he had not prayed, and he swore. Makḥul then arrived and said, ‘Then why have we come at all?’ So they left him alone.”

Abu Hazim al-Madani said: “ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Aziz wrote to Syria: ‘Look into the hadiths Makḥul has transmitted on diyāt (blood-money) and burn them.’ So they were burned.”

Al-Awzaʿi said: “Al-Zuhri and Makḥul would say, ‘Let these hadiths pass just as they have come.’”

Ḍamrah narrates from Rajāʾ ibn Abi Salamah, from Abu ʿUbayd the client of Sulayman, who said: “I never heard Rajāʾ ibn Haywah curse anyone except two men—Yazid ibn al-Muhallab and Makḥul.” I say: I suspect it was over the doctrine of qadar (divine decree).

Ḍamrah also reports from ʿAli ibn Ḥamalah, who said: “We were by a canal in Byzantine territory, and the people …”