whereupon al-Shāfiʿī fainted.
Someone said, “Abū Muḥammad, Muḥammad ibn Idrīs has passed away.” Ibn ʿUyaynah replied, “If he has indeed died, then the best man of his age has died.” (1)

Al-Ḥākim said: I heard Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿUthmān say: I heard al-Ḥasan, the son of Ṣāḥib al-Shāshī, say: I heard al-Rabīʿ say: I heard al-Shāfiʿī being asked about the Quran. He exclaimed, “Uff, uff! The Quran is the speech of Allah; whoever claims it is created has disbelieved.” (2) This chain of transmission is sound.

Abū Dāwūd and Abū Ḥātim transmitted—from Abū Thawr—who said: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, “No one has ever wrapped himself in speculative theology and then prospered.” (3)

Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ādam narrated to us. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam said: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, “If people knew what lies in kalām and in the deviant passions, they would flee from it as they flee from a lion.” (4)

Al-Zubayr ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid said: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad in Egypt informed me; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam narrated to us: After al-Shāfiʿī debated Ḥafṣ al-Fard, he grew to detest kalām and used to say, “By Allah, for a scholar to issue a legal ruling and be told, ‘The scholar has erred,’ is better for him…”