His stipend was entered with the ṣayrafī (money-changer), but the man quibbled over the coinage and said, “You have not sold cloth for this.” Sharik replied, “By Allah, I sold something far greater than cloth—I sold my religion for it.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Junayd al-Rāzī stated: I heard Abū Tawbah al-Ḥalabī say, “We were in Ramla when people asked, ‘Who is the leading man of the umma?’ Some answered, ‘Ibn Luhayʿa,’ while others said, ‘Mālik.’ Then ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus arrived, and when we questioned him he said, ‘The leading man of the umma is Sharik.’ Sharik was still alive at the time.”
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī reported: Salm ibn Qādim told us, Mūsā ibn Dāwud told us, and ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAwwām told us: “Sharik visited us roughly fifty years ago. We said to him, ‘Among us is a group of the Muʿtazila who deny these hadiths: “Indeed, the people of Paradise shall see their Lord” (1) and “Allah descends to the lowest heaven.”’ Sharik then narrated about ten hadiths on the matter and remarked, ‘We took our religion from the sons of the Successors, who took it from the Companions—so from whom did they take theirs?’”
Sharik related—from Ashʿath, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn—who said, “In Kūfa I met four thousand young men seeking knowledge.”
Abū Nuʿaym al-Nakhaʿī said: I heard Sharik remark, “Do you suppose these hadith devotees pursue it for Allah’s sake? They are only showing off with it.”
ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī al-Fallās said, “Yahyā would not transmit from Sharik, whereas ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī did transmit from him.”
Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Ashʿarī said, “I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about Sharik, …”