to transmit hadith ⦗1⦘, and he would say to him, “Do not narrate; otherwise I shall bring the authorities against you.”

Abū Zayd al-Harawī relates from Shuʿbah:
“To plunge from the sky to the earth is dearer to me than to practice tadlīs (concealing a transmitter).”

Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad Jazara said: Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Qazzāz told me, “I heard Abū Dāwūd say, ‘I received seven thousand hadiths from Shuʿbah, and Ghundar received the same number from him. I reported one thousand singular narrations that he did not have, and he reported one thousand that were singular to me.’”

Shuʿbah used to say, “Hold them back so that they must either tell the truth or lie.” Abū ʿUbaydah al-Ḥaddād heard this directly from him.

Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm said, “Whenever a beggar stood up in his session, Shuʿbah would not resume narrating until the man had been given something or someone had undertaken to give it to him.”

Abū ʿĀṣim said, “We were with Shuʿbah when he turned all his attention to a man from Khurāsān. People said, ‘You focus on this fellow and leave us aside?!’ He replied, ‘What guarantee do I have that he is not carrying a dagger with which he could rip open my belly?’”

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā reported: Khālid ibn Khidāsh told us—Ḥarīsh, the nephew of Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, told me: “I saw Shuʿbah in a dream and asked, ‘Which of your deeds did you find the heaviest upon you?’ He said, ‘Being lax when assessing transmitters ⦗2⦘.’”

ʿUbayd ibn Yaʿysh said: I heard Yūnus ibn Bukayr, who heard Shuʿbah say, “Keep this to yourself: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq is the Commander of the Faithful in hadith.”

Shuʿbah also said, “I asked Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, ‘Did al-Ḥasan ever hear from Abū Hurayrah?’ He replied, ‘No—not even a single word.’”