And in every correct way and the two ways sufficient...

And in every correct way and the two ways sufficient evidences are there for that intending to recognize God through his knowledge till going away of their lives, getting nothing of all that but a number of asfar, 724 that fatigued the knowledge-seeker and never benefitted the successor! Whoever be of this class we will view him as a loser of his right, demanding other than which can benefit him. Such people were called Hashwiyyah and Nabitah 725 and Mujbirah, or it is said Jabriyyah.

Also they were given the names of: Ghutha’ 726 Ghuthr, 727 which all being nicknames. 728 Al-Wazir al-Yamani, in al-Rawd al-basim, says: They were called Hashwiyyah because they used to yahshun (insert) baseless traditions into those ones reported from the Messenger of Allah. That is they used to foist these fabricated traditions into the original ones while they had never been among them.

In his book Diya’ al-ulum, Muhammad ibn Nashwan writes: The reason for calling the Hashwiyyah with this name lies in their approval of so many akhbar without negation. 729 Al-Shi’bi says: The earlier righteous men were averse to relating the hadith abundantly, and if I was able to be moderate and fair in accepting and rejecting, I would not relate any hadith but that which got unanimity of men of hadith.

Al-A’mash said: By God to give in charity a piece of bread is much better for me than relating sixty traditions. Shu’bah inquired Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani about some hadith, when he replied: I suspect it. He (Shu’bah) said: Your suspicion is to me more lovable than certainty of seven ones. It is reported too that Shu’bah ibn al-Hajjaj said: O people, the more you progress in hadith, the more you retrograde in the Qur’an.

He also said: I never fear anything to cause me to enter the Fire but only the hadith. Further he said: I wish I was a bathhouse igniter, and never being engaged in hadith. Ubayd Allah ibn `Amr said: I was in the meeting in al-A’mash’s house, when some man came and asked him about an issue, for which he couldn’t give him any answer. But he looked at Abu Hanifah saying: O Nu’man, declare your opinion in its regard. And he said: The opinion about it is so and so.

He (Ubayd Allah) said: From where (is that)? He (Abu Hanifah) said: From the point you related it to us. Al-A’mash said: We are the pharmacists, and you are the physicians. That is: men of hadith are like the pharmacists while the fuqaha’ being like the physicians.