Using this same chain, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jarudi informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Qarrab informed us; Abu Yahya al-Saji informed us, from al-Buwayti, who said: I heard al-Shafi‘i say, “Keep close to the people of hadith, for they are the most correct among mankind.”

It is also narrated from al-Shafi‘i: “Were it not for the inkwells, the heretics would have ascended the pulpits.”

Al-Aṣamm reported: al-Rabi‘ narrated to us that al-Shafi‘i said, “Newly introduced matters are of two types. Whatever is brought forth that contradicts the Book, the Sunnah, an established report, or the consensus is an innovation that is misguidance. Whatever new matter is good and conflicts with none of these is a non-blameworthy innovation. Concerning the night prayer in Ramadan, ‘Umar said, ‘What a splendid innovation this is,’ meaning that it was something new that had not existed before; once it came into being it did not repudiate anything that preceded it.” Al-Bayhaqi transmitted this (1) from al-Ṣadafī, from al-Aṣamm.

Ahmad ibn Salamah al-Naysaburi said: Ishaq ibn Rahwayh married the widow of a man who owned the books of al-Shafi‘i; he married her only for those books, after her husband had died.

He went on: He placed the Jāmi‘ al-Kabīr alongside al-Shafi‘i’s book and the Jāmi‘ al-Ṣaghīr alongside Sufyan’s Jāmi‘. Later Abu Isma‘il al-Tirmidhi arrived in Nishapur with al-Shafi‘i’s books as transmitted by al-Buwayti. Ishaq said to him, “Do not narrate from al-Shafi‘i’s books as long as I am here,” and he agreed (2).

Dawud ibn ‘Ali said: I heard Ibn Rahwayh remark, “I never knew that al-Shafi‘i held such a position; had I known, I would never have left him.” (3)