—it was Sulaymān al-Yashkurī who transmitted that scroll from Jābir.
With the same chain, Maʿmar reported that Qatādah said, “I kept the company of al-Ḥasan for 12 years, and for 3 of those I performed the dawn prayer beside him. A man of my calibre should learn only from a man of his calibre.”
Wakīʿ related that Shuʿbah said, “Qatādah used to grow angry whenever I pressed him about the isnād. One day I quoted to him a ḥadīth that pleased him. He asked, ‘Who related it to you?’ I replied, ‘So-and-so, from so-and-so,’ whereupon he began to count it among his own narrations.”
Abū Hilāl said, “I asked Qatādah about an issue and he answered, ‘I do not know.’ I said, ‘Then give your opinion on it.’ He responded, ‘I have not spoken on the basis of opinion for 40 years.’ At that time he was about 50 years old.” I (the author) remark: This shows that he never uttered anything in matters of knowledge founded merely on personal opinion.
Abū ʿAwānah said, “I heard Qatādah declare, ‘I have not given a legal ruling based on personal opinion for 30 years.’”
Abū Rabīʿah narrated to us from Abū ʿAwānah: “I witnessed Qatādah teaching the Qur’an during the month of Ramaḍān.”
Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah reports from Qatādah that he said, “Oiling the eyebrows is a safeguard against headache.”
Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah, transmitting from Ḥafṣ, from a guide who used to lead Qatādah, said, “I led Qatādah for 20 years. He disliked the mawālī and would mutter, ‘Tanners, barbers, cobblers!’ I said to him, ‘What makes you secure that one of them might grab your hand, drag you to a well, and throw you into it?’ He asked, ‘What did you say?’ I repeated it, and he replied, ‘You shall not lead me after today.’”
ʿAffān said: Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us; Qatādah narrated from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār a ḥadīth concerning bequests. I later asked ʿAmr about it, and he reduced its meaning, describing it differently from the way Qatādah had. I said, ‘Yet Qatādah reported from you such-and-such!’ He answered, ‘I was mistaken the day I narrated it to Qatādah.’
Ibn ʿUyaynah said: People used to quote Maʿmar as saying, “I have not seen among these men anyone more proficient in jurisprudence than al-Zuhrī, Qatādah, and Ḥammād.”