Abū Mus-hir related to us through Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah, who said that al-Zuhrī declared:

“Three qualities, if found in a judge, strip him of that office: he resents reproach, he delights in praise, and he dreads removal from post.”

Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb transmitted from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Ibn Shihāb, who said:

“Do not argue by invoking the Book of Allah, nor by the words of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim reported from Mālik:

“When Ibn Shihāb arrived in Madinah, he took Rabiʿah by the hand and the two of them entered the Dīwān hall; they did not emerge until the late-afternoon (ʿAṣr). Ibn Shihāb remarked, ‘I never imagined there was anyone like you in Madinah.’ Rabiʿah came out saying, ‘I never thought anyone had reached the level of knowledge that Ibn Shihāb has reached.’”

Ibn Abī Rawwād transmitted from Ibn Shihāb, who said:

“Turbans are the crowns of the Arabs; al-ḥabwah (sitting with one’s knees drawn up and bound) is their rampart; and reclining in the mosque is the outpost of the believers.”

Yūnus narrated from Ibn Shihāb, who said:

“Belief in qadar (divine decree) is the ordering principle of tawḥīd (monotheism); whoever affirms Allah’s oneness yet does not believe in qadar has thereby undermined his monotheism.”

Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam reported: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb and Nāfiʿ ibn Yazīd told us, saying that ʿUqayl narrated from Ibn Shihāb, who said:

“It is part of the sunnah of prayer that you recite, ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate,’ then the Opening Chapter of the Book, then recite ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate’ again, and then a surah.”

Accordingly, Ibn Shihāb would sometimes add a surah after al-Fātiḥah, beginning each surah with ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate.’ He used to say, “The first person to recite ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate’ quietly in Madinah was ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, a man noted for his modesty.”

Ibn Abī Yūnus said: I heard Mālik say:

“This knowledge is religion, so look carefully from whom you take it. I met in the mosque seventy men who would say, ‘So-and-so reported: The Messenger of Allah said,’ and had any one of them been entrusted with the public treasury, he would have been trustworthy—yet I took nothing from them, because they were not people qualified for this discipline. Then al-Zuhrī came to us while still a young man, and we crowded at his door.”