ʿUbayd Allah comes in, let me know.’
So ʿUbayd Allah arrived and Hishām sat with him. When Hishām stood up, ʿUbayd Allah said, ‘These days he is regarded as the most knowledgeable man in the East.’

Ibrāhīm ibn Jābir, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Hārūn al-Ghassānī, said: I heard Hishām ibn Ḥassān remark, ‘I wish that everything preserved from me of knowledge were in the vilest oven in Basra, and that my portion of it should be neither for me nor against me.’

I (the author) say: He did not mean knowledge itself—no Muslim would utter such a wish—but rather the act of teaching, which he here calls “knowledge.” Do you not see how he adds: ‘I wish my share of it were neither for me nor against me’?!

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿAllāf, through Muḥammad ibn Sawāʾ, reports: I heard Hishām ibn Ḥassān say to the hadith scholars, ‘I would love to be a vial so that I could be poured drop by drop down the throat of each one of you.’

ʿAffān, from Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh, said that ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd declared: ‘I never once saw Hishām with al-Ḥasan, nor did he ever come with us to al-Ḥasan.’
He further said—and Ashʿath likewise stated—‘I never saw Hishām with al-Ḥasan, neither… neither….’

I said to him, ‘Abū Hāniʾ, ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd is saying this about Hishām, yet Hishām is a man of the sunnah; do not help ʿAmr against him.’
He then refrained from criticizing him.

Yaḥyā ibn Ādam said: Abū Shihāb narrated to us that Shuʿbah told me, ‘Hold fast to Ḥajjāj and Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, for both are reliable memorisers; but conceal my view from the Basrans with respect to Khālid al-Ḥaddāʾ and Hishām.’

I add: No one shared Shuʿbah’s opinion on this point.

Hammād ibn Zayd said: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥajjāj heard Hishām ibn Ḥassān relating from al-Ḥasan, from ʿImrān, who said, ‘We resorted to cauterisation, yet it brought us neither benefit nor success.’
He added, ‘What he actually said was: “So we…”’