What they said about Arabic Narrated with its chain
Al-Qadi ʿIyad relates with his chain from Abu Dawud al-Sinji: I heard al-Asmaʿi say:
“What I fear most for a student of knowledge who does not know grammar is that he will fall under the Prophet’s words, “Whoever lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire”; for the Prophet never erred in his speech, so whenever you relate from him and err in it, you have lied about him.”
al-Asmaʿi
d. 216 AH / 831 CE
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Qurayb, master of Arabic lexicography and transmission in Basra.
The Arabic original
إِنَّ أَخْوَفَ ما أَخافُ عَلَى طالِبِ العِلْمِ إِذا لَمْ يَعْرِفِ النَّحْوَ أَنْ يَدْخُلَ فِي جُمْلَةِ قَوْلِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ: «مَنْ كَذَبَ عَلَيَّ فَلْيَتَبَوَّأْ مَقْعَدَهُ مِنَ النّارِ»؛ لِأَنَّهُ لَمْ يَكُنْ يَلْحَنُ، فَمَهْما رَوَيْتَ عَنْهُ وَلَحَنْتَ فِيهِ كَذَبْتَ عَلَيْهِ.
Source
al-Qadi ʿIyad, al-Ilmaʿ, ed. al-Sayyid Ahmad Saqr, Cairo: Dar al-Turath / Tunis: al-Maktaba al-ʿAtiqa, 1970, p. 184
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
Also in Yaqut’s Muʿjam al-udabaʾ 1:29; some later authors attribute it to Shuʿba, but ʿIyad’s chain goes to al-Asmaʿi.
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