Ibn Wahb reported: Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed us that al-Zuhrī used to pursue knowledge from ʿUrwah and others. He would go to a maidservant of his while she was sleeping, wake her up and say, “So-and-so has narrated to me such-and-such, and so-and-so has narrated to me such-and-such.” She would respond, “What concern is that of mine?” He would reply, “I know you will not benefit from it, but I have just heard it and wish to commit it to memory.”
Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī narrated: al-Walīd ibn Muslim told us, “Al-Zuhrī came out of the Khadraʾ—the Green Palace—after meeting with ʿAbd al-Malik. He sat down by a certain pillar and announced, ‘People! We once withheld something from you that we have now bestowed upon these men. Come, then, and let me relate it to you.’ ”
He went on: al-Zuhrī heard them repeating, “The Messenger of Allah said…, the Messenger of Allah said….” He exclaimed, “People of Syria! Why do I see your ḥadith without reins or bridles?” Al-Walīd commented, “From that day onward our companions clung to chains of transmission.”
A similar report states that al-Zuhrī had previously forbidden them to write from him. When Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik compelled him to dictate to his sons, he then permitted the people to write.
Maʿmar related from al-Zuhrī that he said, “We used to dislike writing until the authorities forced us to do it; after that, I saw no reason to withhold it from any Muslim.”
ʿAbd al-Razzaq heard Maʿmar say, “We thought we had transmitted much from al-Zuhrī—until al-Walīd was killed and notebooks were carried out of his treasuries on pack animals, while people said, ‘This is from the knowledge of al-Zuhrī.’ ”
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Zabālah transmitted from al-Darāwardī, who said, “The first person to record knowledge in writing was Ibn Shihāb.”
Khālid ibn Nizār al-Aylī narrated from Sufyān: “Al-Zuhrī was the most knowledgeable person in Medina.”
ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Thaqafī narrated from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said, “No one has marshalled ḥadith the way al-Zuhrī has.”
Ibn ʿUyaynah narrated from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār: “I have never seen anyone more precise in ḥadith than al-Zuhrī, nor anyone to whom dirhams were more insignificant; they were to him like dung.”