Ḥusayn b. Ismāʿīl al-Maḥāmilī said: al-Muzanī related, “I asked al-Shāfiʿī about a question that had to do with kalām. He replied, ‘Ask me about something such that, if I err in it, you will simply say, “You were mistaken”; but do not ask me about something such that, if I err in it, you will say, “You have disbelieved.”’ (1)

Zakariyyā al-Sājī said: I heard Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Ḥakam say, ‘Al-Shāfiʿī said to me, “Muḥammad, if a man questions you about anything of kalām, do not answer him. Should he ask you about the amount of blood-money and you reply, ‘A dirham’ or ‘A dānaq,’ he will say to you, ‘You are mistaken’; but if he asks you about kalām and you slip, he will say, ‘You have disbelieved.’”’ (2)

Al-Rabīʿ said: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, “Contentious disputation in religion hardens the heart and breeds rancour.” (3)

Ṣāliḥ Jazara reported: I heard al-Rabīʿ say that al-Shāfiʿī told him, “O Rabīʿ, accept three pieces of advice from me: do not engage in discussion about the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for tomorrow your opponent will be the Prophet himself; do not occupy yourself with kalām, for I have observed among the people of kalām a tendency toward taʿṭīl (nullifying the divine attributes); and,” al-Muzanī added, “do not involve yourself in astrology.” (4)

Husayn al-Karābīsī also narrated: “Al-Shāfiʿī was asked about an issue of kalām,”