O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, what was that?”
He replied, “Leave that aside. If you truly want fiqh, stay right behind the tail of that mule.” (1)
Aḥmad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Nasāʾī said: “I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal more times than I can count saying, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shāfiʿī said…,’ and he would add, ‘I have never seen anyone who followed the transmitted reports more faithfully than al-Shāfiʿī.’” (2)
Abū Ḥātim narrated—Yūnus told us: “I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, ‘One day I debated Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan; the discussion became so intense that the veins in his neck swelled and his buttons burst off, one after another.’” (3)
Al-Shāfiʿī also said, “In Baghdad they dubbed me Nāṣir al-Ḥadīth—the Defender of Hadith.” (4)
Yūnus further reported: “I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, ‘No scholar’s work has challenged me more than that of al-Layth and Ibn Abī Dhīb; and al-Layth adhered to the transmitted reports even more closely than Mālik.’” (5)
(1) See al-Bayhaqi, Manaqib al-Shafiʿi, vol. 2, p. 252.
(2) Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 14, p. 415, no. 2.
(3) Adab al-Shafiʿi, p. 160; Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliya, 9/104; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 2/177; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Intiqa, p. 25. A useful discussion of this report is found in Blugh al-Amani, pp. 27, 32. Compare it with the well-authenticated saying of al-Shafiʿi: “I never saw anyone who, when asked about an intricate question, did not show displeasure—except Muhammad ibn al-Hasan.”
(4) The report has already been cited above, p. 47, note (1).
(5) Adab al-Shafiʿi, p. 29; Hilyat al-Awliya, 9/74 and 9/109; Tarikh Baghdad, 2/300–301. Abu Hatim remarked on the report: “I did not think he had met the two men, so how could he grieve over them?” Ibn Hajar replied in al-Tawali: As for al-Layth, al-Shafiʿi did meet him; when he visited Malik and read the Muwatta to him, al-Layth was still alive in Egypt. Al-Shafiʿi later regretted that he had not recognised al-Layth’s stature (or lacked the means to travel to him) and thus missed the opportunity. Regarding Ibn Abi Dhiʿb, he died when al-Shafiʿi was nine years old in Medina; although al-Shafiʿi was still a child, that does not preclude his genuine regret at missing the chance to meet him—that is, he lamented not having lived in his scholarly era.