Awe of narrating from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)

Amr bin Maymun said: I used to come to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) every Thursday. I never heard him say about any matter, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said." Then one evening he said, "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said." At that he lowered his head. I looked at him, and he was standing with the buttons of his shirt undone; his eyes had filled with tears and his veins had swollen. He said: "Either less than that, or more than that, or close to that, or something like that."

Ibn Sirin said that when Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated a hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and finished it, he would say: "Or as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said."

Asim said that Imam al-Sha'bi narrated a hadith. He was asked, "Are you narrating this hadith as marfu' (traced back to the Prophet)?" He said: "Narrating it short of that is dearer to us, because if there is any mistake in it, or some addition or deficiency, then that is dearer to us."

Ibn Abi Layla said: We asked Sayyiduna Zayd bin Arqam (may Allah be pleased with him) to narrate hadith to us. He said: "We have grown old and we have forgotten, and narrating the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is a very grave matter."

Sayyiduna al-Sa'ib bin Yazid (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I set out with Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) from Madinah to Makkah, and I did not hear him narrate any hadith until we returned.

Tawbah al-Anbari said that Imam al-Sha'bi said to me: "What is your opinion of al-Hasan al-Basri when he says, 'The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said'? Yet I have sat in the company of Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), and I never heard him narrate any hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), except one hadith which he narrated: A lizard (dabb) was brought to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'This is not my food; as for you, eat it.'"

Abdullah bin Abi al-Safar said that Imam al-Sha'bi said: "I sat in the company of Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) for a year, and I did not hear him narrate any hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)."

Ibrahim said that Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said to Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud, Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda and Sayyiduna Abu Mas'ud Uqbah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them): I think (he said): "What is this hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?" He said: And I think he kept them confined in Madinah until he was martyred.