with al-Habbāl while a hadith was being recited to him; tears kept streaming from his eyes until the reader had finished.

Al-Silafī said: I heard Ibn Ṭāhir relate, “It rained one day, and al-Habbāl came in and said, ‘More than five hundred dinars’ worth of my books have been ruined by the rain.’ I said to him, ‘People mention that Ibn Manda built a vault for his library.’ He replied, ‘If I were to build a vault, I would need the whole Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ.’

Al-Silafī also said: I heard Murshid ibn Yaḥyā al-Madīnī say, ‘I bought twenty quintars of al-Habbāl’s books for one hundred dinars, and he still owned more than five hundred quintars of books.’

It is reported that a hadith student once went to Abū Isḥāq al-Habbāl to hear a single fascicle from him—this was before public transmission was prohibited—so al-Habbāl brought out twenty copies and handed each person a manuscript so that he could collate it (1).

Al-ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir said: I heard Abū Isḥāq al-Habbāl say, ‘With us in Egypt there was a man who attended the hadith sessions. He was very stringent; whenever he recorded an audition on the master copy, he would not write anyone’s name until he first made him swear that he had heard the entire fascicle without missing a single word.

‘I also heard him say: One day we were reading to a shaykh when we came to the Prophet’s words, “A talebearer shall not enter Paradise.” (2) In the gathering was a man who sold qatt—fodder for beasts of burden. He stood up weeping and said, “I repent to Allah.” He was told, “That is not what is meant; it refers rather to the slanderer who carries people’s words from one group to another, harming them.” So he calmed down and felt at ease (3).’