ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, the philologist, related: “We kept the company of al-Shāfiʿī for a long time, and I never once heard him commit a single grammatical slip.” (1)

I say: How could it be otherwise, when he is the very yardstick of eloquence? He was the most articulate man of Quraysh in his day, and people actually learned the language from him.

Ahmad ibn Abī Surayj al-Rāzī said, “I have never seen anyone whose diction was clearer or whose speech more articulate than al-Shāfiʿī.” (2)

Al-Aṣmaʿī remarked, “I learned the poetry of Hudhayl from al-Shāfiʿī.” (3)

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār stated, “I mastered the poetry of Hudhayl—and the accounts that go with it—from my uncle Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and he used to say, ‘I memorised it from al-Shāfiʿī.’” (4)

Mūsā ibn Sahl al-Jawni (5) narrated: Ahmad ibn Ṣāliḥ told us that al-Shāfiʿī said to him, “Devote yourself to worship before you assume leadership, for if you become a leader you will no longer find the opportunity to worship.”

Ahmad added, “Whenever al-Shāfiʿī spoke, his voice had the clear ring of cymbals and bells, so melodious was his tone.” (6)

Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam said, “I never saw al-Shāfiʿī debate anyone without feeling compassion for that person, and if…"