Abu Bakr al-Aʿyan narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Madaʾini narrated to us, from Warqaʾ:
I said to Shuʿbah, “Why did you stop transmitting the hadith of Abu al-Zubayr?”
He replied, “I once saw him weighing out goods and taking the heavier side for himself, so I abandoned him.”

ʿAli ibn Sahl narrated to us; ʿAffan narrated to us; I heard Shuʿbah say, “Were it not for certain needs we have of you, I would not sit with you.”
ʿAffan explained, “Those needs were his requests on behalf of his poor neighbors.”

I also heard Shuʿbah say, “If we used to visit a man’s father and he honored us, then when his son later comes to us we honor him. But if we visited a man and he humiliated us, when his son comes to us we humiliate him.”

ʿUmar ibn Shabbah narrated to us; ʿAffan narrated to us, reporting that Yahya ibn Saʿid said, “I have never seen anyone whose hadith is better than Shuʿbah’s.”

Abu Bahr al-Bakrawi said, “I have not seen anyone more devoted in worship of Allah than Shuʿbah; he worshipped until the skin dried upon his bones and turned black. (1)”

Hamzah ibn Ziyad al-Tusi said, “I heard Shuʿbah—he had a slight lisp, and his skin had dried from worship—say, ‘If I were to narrate to you only from those I completely trust, I would not narrate to you from even three persons.’”

ʿUmar ibn Harun said, “Shuʿbah used to fast perpetually, all year long.”

Our teacher Abu al-Hajjaj mentioned in his Tahdhib that Shuʿbah recorded the names of three hundred shaykhs from whom he transmitted.”}