I said: Had he been inclined to Shiʿism—and far be that from him (1)—he would never have declared, “The Rightly Guided Caliphs are five,” beginning with al-Ṣiddīq and ending with ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAdī relates: ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Qazwīnī told us; Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; I heard my father say:

“I heard the Muwaṭṭaʾ from al-Shāfiʿī because I found him utterly reliable in it, although I had already heard it from several teachers before him.”

Al-Ḥākim says: I heard Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shāshī, the jurist, relate:

“I visited Ibn Khuzaymah, and he asked, ‘My son, with whom did you study jurisprudence?’ I named Abū al-Layth for him.

“He then asked, ‘And with whom did he study?’

“I replied, ‘With Ibn Surayj.’

“He said, ‘Did Ibn Surayj acquire his knowledge from anything other than borrowed books?’

“A man interjected, ‘This Abū al-Layth is shunned in Shāsh, for the town is Hanbalī.’

“Ibn Khuzaymah retorted, ‘And what was Ibn Ḥanbal but a youthful disciple of al-Shāfiʿī?’ (2)

Zakariyyā al-Sājī reports: I said to Abū Dāwūd, ‘Who are al-Shāfiʿī’s companions?’ He answered, ‘The first of them are al-Humaydī, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and al-Buwayṭī.’

And through two separate chains it is reported from al-Shāfiʿī that he said:

‘If I see a man from the companions of…’