We have transmitted it.

I remarked, “It seems I have just narrated to you a ḥadīth that you know better than I do.”

He replied, “Do not say that; what is unknown is not knowledge. Knowledge is only what is recognized and upon which many tongues concur.”

Ibn Wahb said:

Mālik stated, “Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib has died and left no written work behind, nor did al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, nor ʿUrwah, nor Ibn Shihāb.”

I said to Ibn Shihāb—wanting to challenge him—“Did you not use to write things down?”

He answered—

I asked, “And would you never request that the ḥadīth be repeated to you?”

He said, “No.”

Maʿmar said: Whenever al-Zuhrī mentioned ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn he would say, “I have never seen anyone in his household superior to him.”

Ayyūb ibn Suwayd reported: Yūnus related to us that al-Zuhrī said, “Beware of misappropriating books.”

I asked, “What does misappropriating them mean?”

He said, “Keeping them back (from their owners).”

Al-Awzāʿī, from Sulaymān ibn Ḥabīb, from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, said:

“Whatever al-Zuhrī brings you on the authority of someone else, hold fast to it; but whatever he brings you from his own opinion, cast it aside.”

Ibn al-Madīnī said, “The knowledge of the trustworthy transmitters revolves around six men: in the Ḥijāz, al-Zuhrī and ʿAmr ibn Dīnār; in Baṣra, Qatādah and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr; and in Kūfa, Abū Isḥāq and al-Aʿmash.”

Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar, from Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, from al-Zuhrī, said: Ibn ʿAbbās used to say, “Five things bring about forgetfulness: eating apples, urinating in stagnant water, cupping at the nape, throwing a louse onto the ground, and drinking water left over by a mouse (1).”

Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī said: Abū Ḥumayd, the client of Musāfiʿ, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah—­from whom al-Zuhrī transmitted—related the ḥadīth, “You will surely be sifted as dates are sifted” (3).