We were also informed—concerning the Minor Compendium of Rulings (al-Aḥkām al-Ṣughrā)—by Imām Abū Muḥammad ibn Hārūn in a letter he sent us from the Maghrib. He wrote:

“Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī Naṣr related to us, transmitting what he had personally heard from the author, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq.”

Ibn al-Zubayr says in his biographical notice on ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq: “He competed with the foremost poets, yet he never let the reins of his tongue run loose.”

I say: How sweet and admonishing are his words when he recited:

In death and in the promised Return there lies enough concern,
A reminder for the man of reason and a message that suffices.
So seize, before the fated end, two precious states, my brother:
Your body’s health and the leisure of your time. (1)

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Tabrīzī informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Sakhāwī informed us in the year 635 AH; Majd al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ghālib al-Azdī informed us in the year 586 AH; Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Azdī informed us; Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad informed us; Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir al-Tamīmī informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Naysābūrī— the Qurʾān-reciter—together with others informed us, saying:

“ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Khuzaʿī informed us; al-Haytham ibn Kulayb al-Shāshī in Bukhārā informed us; Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī narrated to us; Maḥmūd ibn Ghailān narrated to us; Abū Dāwūd narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Qatādah, who said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʿUtbah relate on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, who said:”