Abu ʿAbd Allah ibn Mandah reported: I was told by al-Rabiʿ who said, “I saw Ashhab ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz in prostration, pleading, ‘O Allah, cause al-Shafiʿi to die so that Malik’s knowledge will not be lost.’ When this reached al-Shafiʿi he composed:

‘Men have wished that I might die; yet if I do die,
That is a road on which I am hardly the only traveler.

So tell the one who seeks (1) to oppose what has already passed:
Prepare yourself for another just like it—for it is all but here.

They know well—were knowledge of any use to them—
That though I die, the one who prays against me will not live forever.’ (2)

Al-Mubarrad said: A man once entered upon al-Shafiʿi and remarked, “The followers of Abu Hanifah are truly eloquent.” Al-Shafiʿi thereupon composed:

‘Were it not that poetry diminishes the standing of scholars,
I would today be more poetic than Labid;

Braver in battle than any lion,
Than the clan of al-Muhallab and Abu Yazid;

And were it not for fear of the Most Merciful, my Lord,
I would count all mankind as my slaves.’ (3)