Al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān reported: Abū Thawr narrated to us, saying, “I heard al-Shāfiʿī—who was a mine of juristic knowledge, a critic of meanings, and a connoisseur of expressions—declare:

‘The rule that governs meanings is unlike the rule that governs words, for meanings stretch out with no end, whereas the terms that denote those meanings are few and finite. Every type of indication that points to meanings, whether verbal or non-verbal, falls into five categories: verbal expression, then gesture, then finger-signs (al-ʿaqd), then writing, and finally what is called al-naṣbah. The naṣbah, in its present usage, is an indicator that neither fully takes the place of those categories nor falls short of their capacity. Each of these five has a form distinct from the form of its companion and an ornament different from that of its sister. They are what lay bare for you the very identities of meanings in the aggregate, the subtleties that escape explicit exposition, their genera and individual instances, their specific and general dimensions, their nature in what benefits and harms, and what is mere hollow tinsel or base and cast-off.’⦗1⦘

Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā said: Al-Shāfiʿī once told me, ‘There is no path to complete safety from people, so discern whatever brings about your own rectitude and hold fast to it.’⦗2⦘