I say: He accompanied his brother in the quest for knowledge and the two of them jointly verified their books, so it was perfectly acceptable for him to narrate from his brother’s manuscripts. But what would the scholars of old think if they saw us today? We listen to any mis-copied page read out by the most ignorant shaykh who merely holds an ijazah, then we transmit from another copy that differs from the first in countless ways and errors. Our best man corrects whatever his memory allows, our student busies himself writing children’s names, our “scholar” is simply copying, our shaykh is asleep, while a group of youngsters are off in another valley chatting and joking.

Every innovator has taken his fill of us, and every believer scoffs at us. Are these worthless folk the ones who will safeguard the community’s religion? Never, by Allah!

So may Allah have mercy on Hudbah—where will you find the like of Hudbah? True, in memorization he was not on the level of Shuʿbah.

Al-Faḍl ibn al-Ḥubāb reported: “During the days of Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī we passed by Hudbah while he was sitting by the roadside, and we said, ‘Why not ask him to narrate to us?’ We asked him, and he replied, ‘The books are the books of Umayyah,’ meaning his brother.”

Al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān said: “I heard Hudbah ibn Khālid say, ‘I performed the funeral prayer for Shuʿbah.’ He was asked, ‘Did you ever see him?’ He became angry and said, ‘I saw someone better than him—Ḥammād ibn Salamah. He was a Sunnī, whereas Shuʿbah held the doctrine of irjāʾ (Murjiʾism).’”

I say: Certainly not—Shuʿbah was no Murjiʾī; at most it was some minor matter that does him no harm.

Ibn ʿAdī said: “I heard Abū Yaʿlā asked about Hudbah and Shaybān—who is superior? He replied, ‘Hudbah is the better, the more reliable, and the more prolific in hadith. He owned two copies of Ḥammād ibn Salamah’s narrations: one arranged by shaykhs and another arranged topically.’”

ʿAbdān al-Ahwāzī said: “We would not pray behind Hudbah because of the length of his prayer; in bowing and prostration he would glorify Allah thirty-odd times.” He added: “Among all of Allah’s creation he most resembled Hishām ibn ʿAmmār—his beard, his face, everything about him, even his prayer.”