the chain of transmission is the believer’s weapon, so whoever has no weapon—how will he fight?

Qabīṣah said: I heard Sufyān remark, “The angels are the sentinels of the sky, and the people of hadith are the sentinels of the earth.”

Yahyā ibn Yamān reported: It was said to Sufyān, “The people of hadith have no (sincere) intention.” He replied, “Their very quest for it is an intention. If the people of hadith did not come to me, I would go to them in their homes (1).”

Al-Khuraybī said: I heard Sufyān declare, “Nothing is more beneficial to humanity than hadith.”

Maʿdān—about whom Ibn al-Mubārak said, “He is among the abdāl (2)”—stated: “I asked al-Thawrī about the verse, ‘And He is with you wherever you are’ (57:4).” He answered, “His knowledge (3).”

Sufyān was questioned about the hadiths that concern the divine attributes, and he said, “Let them pass as they have come.”

Abū Nuʿaym narrated from him: “I wish I could slip away from hadith with neither gain nor loss.”

Abū Usāmah related that Sufyān said, “I wish my hand had been cut off and I had never pursued hadith.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr said: Sufyān declared, “The only thing I fear for myself is hadith.” He explained that this was because he narrated from weak transmitters.

I (the author) add: and because he would at times practice tadlīs (concealing the intermediary) on their behalf, and he feared the lure of ego and the absence of intention on certain occasions.