your father, nor better than he. Do you know what caused him to lag behind the rest of the people? (1) He cocked his nose in pride because of his father; so do not—O Abū al-ʿAbbās—cock your own nose on account of your father.

“Do you know what true advancement is? Energy coupled with humility. And withdrawal is nothing but sloth and self-importance. (2)”

It was said that Ibn Hinzabah was devoted to worship: he would fast, then break his fast and sleep, rise in the night, enter the room he used for prayer, and remain standing with his feet aligned until dawn.

Al-Musabbihī narrated: “When Ibn Hinzabah was washed for burial, three strands of the Prophet’s hair—God bless him and grant him peace—were placed inside his shroud; he had obtained them for a large sum of money. (3)”

Hinzabah (4) was a slave woman and the mother of the vizier al-Faḍl. In the lexicon, the word hinzabah denotes a short, stout woman.

Ibn Ṭāhir said: “I saw at al-Ḥabbāl’s shop many fascicles that had been prepared for Ibn Hinzabah. Among them were ‘The fascicle completing one thousand hadiths from the Musnad of so-and-so’, ‘The fascicle completing five hundred hadiths from the Musnad of so-and-so’, and others of the same sort.”

He constantly spent his wealth on charity and good works, lavishing generous sums on the people of the Two Sanctuaries until he purchased a house as near as could be to the Prophetic Chamber. He stipulated that he be buried there and won the goodwill of the noble families with gold.

When his bier was brought from Egypt, the people came out to receive it and he was buried in that very house. (5)

He died on 13 Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 391 AH.