Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 3206 — Reports on storytellers and preachers

It is narrated from Yazid al-Raqashi that a group of people disagreed among themselves about storytelling (relying on tales for preaching and admonition): some considered it good and some disliked it. Then they came to Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), mentioned the matter to him and asked him, and he said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent with fighting (striving for the supremacy of the truth), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) was not sent for storytelling (narrating tales)."
The narrator Yazid bin Aban al-Raqashi in the chain of this report is da'if (weak); moreover, there is also a break in the chain because of an unnamed narrator ("from some of his companions"). However, this statement points to the importance of the true aims of the religion as opposed to storytelling.