A trustworthy transmitter relates, through Abū Dāwūd, who heard Shuʿbah say: “I am a servant to anyone who possesses two ḥadiths.”

Ibn Ḥibbān said: Makḥūl narrated to us; al-Naḍr ibn Salamah narrated to us; Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; he said, “I heard Shuʿbah say: ‘Every ḥadith that does not contain the wording ḥaddathanā (“he related to us”) is like a man in the wilderness with a camel that has no bridle.’”

Saʿdawayh said: Ashʿath Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Sammān narrated to us; he reported that Shuʿbah said to me, “You stayed with the marketplace and succeeded, whereas I remained with ḥadith and became bankrupt.”

Abū Nūḥ Qurād said: I heard Shuʿbah say, “If you see an inkwell in someone’s house, have mercy on him; and if you have anything in your sleeve, feed him.”

Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib said: I heard Abū Dāwūd say, “One day I was at Shuʿbah’s door while the mosque was full. Shuʿbah came out, leaned on me, and said, ‘O Sulaymān, do you think all of these people will leave as ḥadith transmitters?’ I replied, ‘No.’ He said, ‘You are right—nor even five of them. A man writes when he is young, but when he grows older he abandons it or becomes occupied with wrongdoing.’ He continued, ‘I looked later, and not even five of them emerged.’”

From Shuʿayb ibn Ḥarb, who heard Shuʿbah say, “I went back and forth to ʿAmr ibn Dīnār five hundred times, yet heard from him only one hundred ḥadiths.”

Al-Jahḍamī said: al-Aṣmaʿī narrated to us: “We were with Shuʿbah, and whenever he began narrating he would hear the sound of writing tablets. He asked, ‘Is the sky raining?’ They said, ‘No.’ He resumed the narration, heard the same sound again, and asked, ‘Rain?’ They said, ‘No.’ When it happened a third time he said, ‘By Allah, today I will narrate only to a blind man.’ He then remained silent as Allah willed, whereupon a one-eyed man stood up and said, ‘O Abū Bisṭām, will you relate to me?’”

Abū al-Walīd said: I heard Shuʿbah say, “I used to go to Qatādah and ask him about—”