Abu Hatim al-Busti said: “Al-Haytham ibn Khalaf and al-Husayn ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qattan narrated to us, saying: ‘Ishaq ibn Musa related to us. Maʿn al-Qazzaz narrated from Malik, from Ibn Idris, from Shuʿbah, from Saʿd ibn Ibrahim, from his father, who said:
Umar summoned Ibn Masʿud, Abu al-Dardaʾ, and Abu Masʿud al-Ansari and asked, “What is this abundance of hadith you are transmitting from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He then held them in Madinah until the day he was martyred.’”
Abu Bistam (Shuʿbah) was an imam—firmly reliable, an unimpeachable authority, a sharp critic, a consummate expert—righteous, ascetic, content with the barest provision, a leader in both knowledge and practice, without peer. He was the first to engage systematically in grading narrators, declaring some trustworthy and others weak.
Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan, Ibn Mahdi, and a host of others learned this discipline from him.
Sufyan al-Thawri would humble himself before him, hold him in deep reverence, and say, “Shuʿbah is the Commander of the Believers in hadith.”
Al-Shafiʿi said, “Had it not been for Shuʿbah, hadith would never have become known in Iraq.”
Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Hakim remarked, “In Basra, Shuʿbah is the imam of the imams in the field of hadith.”
He met Anas ibn Malik and ʿAmr ibn Salamah al-Jarmi, and he heard from four hundred teachers of the generation of the Followers.
Among his own teachers who later narrated from him were Mansur, al-Aʿmash, Ayyub, Dawud ibn Abi Hind, and Saʿd ibn Ibrahim (the judge of Madinah).
Hammad ibn Zayd said, “If Shuʿbah differs with me over a hadith, I defer to him.”
Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi said, “I heard seven thousand hadiths from Shuʿbah, and Ghundar also heard seven thousand from him.”
I say: he is counting both prophetic reports and the statements of early authorities.
Abu Qatn said, “Shuʿbah wrote me a letter of introduction to Abu Hanifah so that he would narrate to me (1). I went to him, and he asked, ‘How is Abu Bistam?’ I replied, ‘He is well.’ He said, ‘He is the finest ornament of this city.’”