Muhammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī related from his father: “No one who transmits the Muwaṭṭaʾ is to be put ahead of al-Qaʿnabī.”
I say: The true measure of sainthood (wilāyah) is solid grounding in knowledge and deeds—exactly what al-Qaʿnabī exemplified.
Abū Ḥātim said, “He is trustworthy, an authority. I have never seen anyone more humble than he. We asked him to read the Muwaṭṭaʾ to us, and he answered, ‘Come tomorrow morning.’”
We said, “We have a session with Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl.”
He asked, “When you finish with him?”
We said, “We shall then go to Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm.”
He asked, “When you finish?”
We said, “We shall go to Abū Ḥudhayfah al-Nahdī.”
He asked, “And after ʿAṣr?”
We said, “We shall go to ʿĀrim Abū al-Nuʿmān.”
He asked, “And after Maghrib?”
So he would come to us at night. He would appear wearing a kabl—a single outer cloak with nothing beneath it—even in the height of summer, and he would read to us in the most intense heat on those occasions. (1)
In the Prophet’s words, “If you feel no shame, then do whatever you wish,” al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab mentions two main interpretations.
The first holds that the imperative “do” is not permissive but rather expresses blame and prohibition. Advocates of this view present two lines of reasoning:
1. The imperative is a form of threat and warning: if you have no modesty, act as you please, for Allah will requite you—just as in the Qur’anic verse, “Do whatever you wish; He indeed sees what you do” (Q 41:40).
2. The imperative is worded as a command but actually conveys information: whoever lacks modesty will in fact do whatever he wants, because modesty is what restrains a person from shameful deeds. One who has no modesty will plunge into every indecency and evil from which a modest person abstains—similar to the Prophet’s saying, “Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire.” Though phrased as a command, it really states a fact: whoever lies about him will occupy a seat in the Fire.
This interpretation was favored by Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, Ibn Qutayba, Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi, and others; Abu Dawud also reports from Imam Ahmad something to this effect.
The second interpretation understands the statement at face value: it is a genuine permission. Its meaning is that if a person intends to do something for which he need feel no shame before Allah or people—because it is either an act of obedience or a commendable moral and social behavior—then he may do it freely.
This is the view of several scholars, among them Ishaq al-Marwazi al-Shafi‘i, and a similar opinion is reported from Imam Ahmad.
(1) Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Ta‘dil, vol. 5, p. 181. Al-kabl: a large fur cloak.