intended to recite or even to speak, his sobbing would overcome him, and his father had wept so much that he went blind.

Hishām ibn Ḥassān said, “Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād’s daily sustenance was a single loaf of bread.”

Awfā ibn Dilham said, “Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād once possessed property and slaves. He emancipated some of them and sold others, then withdrew to worship with great intensity. When people remonstrated with him he replied, ‘I am only humbling myself before Allah, hoping that He will have mercy on me.’ (1)

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Zayd related: “A man came to al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād and said, ‘Someone visited me in a dream and said, “Go to al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād and ask him, Why do you weep? You have already been forgiven.”’ On hearing that, he wept and said, ‘Now is precisely the time when I will not slacken.’”

Salamah ibn Saʿīd said, “When a vision showed that al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād was destined for Paradise, he spent three days during which his tears never dried, he tasted no sleep, and he took no food. Al-Ḥasan came to him and said, ‘My brother, will you destroy yourself because you were given the glad tidings of Paradise!’ His weeping only increased. Al-Ḥasan stayed with him until evening; he was fasting, so he finally ate a little.”

ʿUbayd Allah al-ʿAnsī narrated this report from Salamah.

Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān said, “I heard Mālik ibn Dīnār ask Hishām ibn Ziyād al-ʿAdawī, who told him: ‘A man from Syria prepared for the pilgrimage. In his sleep someone came to him and said, “Go to Basra and meet al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād; he is a man of medium stature, with a chipped front tooth and a ready smile. Give him the glad tidings of Paradise.” The man said, ‘It is only a dream; it means nothing.’ The visitor returned on the second night, then on the third, adding a threat. At dawn the man made ready for Iraq. When he left his home, the figure he had seen in his dream was walking ahead of him, and whenever he dismounted the figure vanished.

“He arrived and stood at al-ʿAlāʾ’s door. I came out to him and he asked, ‘Are you al-ʿAlāʾ?’ I said, ‘No. Come down—may Allah have mercy on you—and rest your baggage.’

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘where is al-ʿAlāʾ?’

“I said, ‘In the mosque.’

“Al-ʿAlāʾ then came. When he saw the man he smiled, revealing his chipped tooth, and said, ‘By Allah, this is indeed the one.’

“Al-ʿAlāʾ said, ‘Could you not at least put down your pack…’”}