al-Aṣamm and Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: al-Rabīʿ related to us: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say:
“I arrived before Mālik having already memorised al-Muwaṭṭaʾ by heart. I said, ‘I would like to hear it from you.’ He replied, ‘Look for someone who can read it to you.’ So I said, ‘It would not trouble you to listen to my recitation; if that is agreeable to you, I shall read it myself.’ (1)
Ahmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Himmānī reported: Abū ʿUbayd narrated to us:
“I saw al-Shāfiʿī with Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan after he had given him fifty dinars—before that he had already presented him with fifty dirhams—and Muḥammad said, ‘If you long for knowledge, then stay the course.’
“Abū ʿUbayd added: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, ‘I wrote down from Muḥammad a load fit for a camel. When Muḥammad handed it over to me he said, “Do not feel embarrassed.” He also said, “Had you been, in my eyes, someone before whom I would be bashful (2), I would not have accepted your kindness.” (3)
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān related to us: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say:
“From Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan I carried away a Bukhtī camel-load, containing nothing but what I had personally heard.” (4)
= Al-Qurraʾ, 1/166; Al-Bidaya, 10/252; Tarikh Baghdad, 2/62; Al-Razi, Manaqib al-Shafiʿi, p. 70; Lisān al-ʿArab, root q-r-ʾ. According to all the Qurʾan-reciters except Ibn Kathir, the word is read with a hamza: al-Qurʾan. It is the verbal noun of qaraʾtu (“I gathered”), just as one says qirāʾa and qurʾānan, like ghufrān, kufrān and furqān. At its root the term means “to collect”; whatever you assemble you have qaraʾtahu. The scripture was therefore called Qurʾan because it gathers together narratives, commands and prohibitions, promises and threats, and joins the verses and surahs to one another.
(1) Al-Rabiʿ b. Sulaymān, Ādāb al-Shafiʿi, pp. 27–28; Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 9/69; Ibn Hajar, Tawalī al-Taʾsīs, p. 51; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Al-Intiqāʾ, pp. 68-69.
(2) I.e. “I am ashamed before you.” ḥishma is the feeling of reserve toward your brother when eating or when asking him for something.
(3) Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, 14/402/2.
(4) The chain of transmission is sound. The report is also found in Ādāb al-Shafiʿi, p. 33; Hilyat al-Awliyāʾ, 9/78; Tarikh Baghdad, 2/176; Al-Intiqāʾ, p. 69; Al-Jawāhir al-Muḍiyya, 2/43. Ibn Hajar adds in Tawalī al-Taʾsīs, p. 54: “The leadership of jurisprudence in Medina ended with Malik b. Anas, so (al-Shafiʿi) travelled to him, stayed with him, and studied under him; and the leadership of jurisprudence in Iraq ended with Abu Hanifa, so he studied under Abu Hanifa’s disciple Muhammad b…"