Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of Mālik ibn Dīnār, said:

“Harim once lit a fire. His people came and greeted him from afar. He said, ‘Come closer.’ They replied, ‘We cannot on account of the fire.’ He said, ‘So you would have me thrown into a fire far greater than this?’

Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī reported from Harim ibn Ḥayyān that he said, ‘Beware of the profligate scholar.’ This reached ʿUmar, who—disturbed by the remark—wrote to him asking, ‘Who is the profligate scholar?’ Harim wrote back, ‘I only intended good: it is an imam who speaks with knowledge yet lives in wickedness, thereby confusing the people and leading them astray.’

Al-Walīd ibn Hishām al-Qaḥdhamī narrated, from his father, from his grandfather, that ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ dispatched Harim ibn Ḥayyān against a fortress, and he seized it by force (1).

Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: “Harim and ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿĀmir ibn Kurayz once set out together. While their mounts were grazing, Harim asked, ‘Would it please you to have been this tree?’ He replied, ‘No, by Allah. Allah has granted me Islam, and I hope for His reward.’ Harim said, ‘By Allah, I would love to have been this tree, to be eaten by this she-camel, then excreted, turned into dung (2), and spared the ordeal of the Reckoning. O son of Abī ʿĀmir—woe to you! I fear the Great Calamity.’”

Qatādah said: Harim ibn Ḥayyān used to say, “Whenever a servant turns his heart toward Allah, Allah turns the hearts of the believers toward him until He grants him their love.”

Hishām, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, said: “Harim ibn Ḥayyān died on a scorching day. When they had shaken the dust from their hands after burying him, a cloud came and hovered over the grave—neither longer nor shorter than it—sprinkling water upon it until the earth was soaked, and then it departed.” Two narrators transmitted this report from Hishām (3).