He also said:
“My ruling concerning the people of kalām (speculative theology) is that they be beaten with palm-branches (1), led around the various tribes, and a crier proclaim about them: ‘This is the recompense of the one who abandoned the Book and the Sunnah and busied himself with kalām.’”
Al-Buwayṭī said: “I heard al-Shāfiʿī say, ‘Adhere to the people of ḥadith, for they are the most accurate of mankind.’ ”
He would further say: “When I see a man from the people of ḥadith, it is as though I were seeing a man from among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. May Allah reward them with goodness; they have preserved the foundation for us, and thus the credit is theirs over us (2).”
In the same vein he composed the following verses (3):
“All branches of knowledge apart from the Qur’an are mere distraction—
save ḥadith and jurisprudence in the religion.
True knowledge is only that which begins, ‘He narrated to us …’;
all else is the whispering of devils.”
He also said: “The Qur’an is the speech of Allah, uncreated; whoever says it is created is a disbeliever (4).” Al-Rabīʿ and several other leading disciples transmitted from him that he accepted the verses and aḥadith concerning the divine attributes exactly as they have come, without inquiring into how (takīf), without likening (tashbīh), without negation (taʿṭīl), and without distortion (taḥrīf), following the path of the early generations.
Ibn Khuzaymah said: “Al-Muzanī recited to me, saying, ‘Al-Shāfiʿī recited to us—his own composition (5):
Whatever You will takes place, though I may not will,
and what I will cannot be unless You will.
You created the servants upon what You already knew;
thus the youth and the elder move within that knowledge.
Some are wretched and some are blessed,
some are ugly and some are fair.
To this one You granted favour, that one You abandoned;
this one You aided, and that one You left without aid.’ ”
Al-Rabīʿ said: “I heard al-Shāfiʿī declare: ‘The best of people after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ are Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī.’ ”
Al-Rabīʿ also reported: “Al-Shāfiʿī recited to us (6):
‘They have driven (7) the people away until they produced innovations—
opinions in the religion for which no messengers were ever sent.’