May Allah have mercy on him—for whenever he passed by an assembly the people would exclaim, “There is no god but Allah.”

It was also said that, because of his devotion and piety, he used to be called “the Monk.”

ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn al-Haytham transmitted from his grandfather who said: “Whenever we visited al-Qaʿnabī, he would come out to us as though he were standing on the very brink of Hellfire.” (1)

Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Zuhairī reported, on the authority of al-Hunaynī: “We were with Mālik when Ibn Qaʿnab returned from a journey, whereupon Mālik said, ‘Let us rise and go to the best man on earth.’” (2)

Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Hākim related that al-Dāraqutnī said: “With respect to the Muwattaʾ, the foremost transmitters are Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā, Ibn Wahb, and al-Qaʿnabī.” He then added, “Abu Muṣʿab is also reliable in the Muwattaʾ.”

I once cited an anecdote—unsound in its chain—about al-Qaʿnabī hearing that particular hadith from Shuʿbah: that he burst into Shuʿbah’s house, found him urinating into a drain, and said, “Narrate to me.” Shuʿbah reproached him, saying, “You barge into my home and then demand, ‘Narrate to me’ while I am in this state?!” Al-Qaʿnabī replied, “I fear missing the opportunity.” So Shuʿbah related the hadith to him despite the impropriety and swore never to narrate anything else to him.

In sum, al-Qaʿnabī only met Shuʿbah in the latter’s final days and therefore transmitted little from him. Shuʿbah himself had received that hadith from Aflah, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, and Aflah was slightly older than Shuʿbah.

I personally heard the Muwattaʾ in Aleppo and Baalbek through the narration of al-Qaʿnabī from Mālik. (3)