Story Tellers

Story Tellers – القصاص

A man came to Shu’bah and asked him for a Hadith.

Shu’bah asked: ‘Are you a story teller?’

He said: ‘Yes.’

Shu’bah said: ‘We do not narrate Hadiths to story tellers.’

The man asked: ‘Why not?’

Shu’bah said:

يَأْخُذُونَ الْحَدِيثَ مِنَّا شِبْرًا فَيَجْعَلُونَهُ ذِرَاعًا

“They take a Hadith from us that is the size of a hand-span and they turn it into a cubit!”

[Ibn al-Jawzi’s ‘al-Qussas wal-mudhakkirin’, 308].