about an issue of kalām, whereupon he became angry and said, “Ask Hafs al-Fard and his circle about that—may Allah disgrace them.” (1)

Al-Aṣamm reported: “I heard al-Rabīʿ say, ‘I heard al-Shāfiʿī remark, “I would love for people to learn this knowledge—meaning my books—on the condition that not a single part of it be credited to me.”’ (2)

It is also related from al-Shāfiʿī: “My ruling concerning the practitioners of kalām is the same ruling ʿUmar passed on Ṣabīgh.” (3)

Al-Zaʿfarānī and others narrated: “We heard al-Shāfiʿī say, ‘My verdict regarding the People of kalām is that they be flogged with palm stalks, mounted on camels, paraded among the tribes, and it be proclaimed before them: This is the recompense of anyone who abandons the Book and the Sunnah and turns to kalām.’” (4)

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ashʿarī, a companion of al-Shāfiʿī, said that the Imām declared, “My position toward the People of kalām is to press their heads down with whips and drive them out across the land.”

I say: Perhaps this is mass-transmitted from the Imām.

Al-Rabīʿ related: “I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, ‘I never debated anyone merely to prevail over him; I debated only for the sake of the truth as I understood it.’”

Al-Zaʿfarānī transmitted from him: “I have never argued with anyone except out of sincere counsel.”

Zakariyyā al-Sājī said: “Aḥmad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Nasāʾī narrated to us: I heard…"