and let the man dismount?”

He replied, “I asked him to, but he refused.”

Al-ʿAlāʾ said, “Dismount—may Allah have mercy on you.”

The man answered, “Give me some privacy.”

So Al-ʿAlāʾ went into the house and said, “Asmāʾ, step aside.” The man entered, gave him the glad tidings contained in his dream, then left, mounted his beast, and Al-ʿAlāʾ shut the door. He wept for three days—or, as another version says, seven—during which he tasted neither food nor drink.

I heard him sobbing, “It is I, it is I….” We were afraid to open his door, and I feared he might die, so I went to Al-Ḥasan and informed him. Al-Ḥasan came, knocked, and when the door was opened he found Al-ʿAlāʾ in a condition whose severity only Allah knew.

Al-Ḥasan said to him, “You are, if Allah wills, among the people of Paradise—so will you wage war against your own self?”

Hishām said, “Al-ʿAlāʾ then told the dream to me and to Al-Ḥasan and said, ‘Do not speak of it while I am alive.’” (1)

Qatādah transmits from Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād that he said, “What harm is it to you to declare a Muslim an unbeliever, or to kill him!” (2)

Hishām ibn Ḥassān said, “Al-ʿAlāʾ would fast until his complexion turned green and pray until he collapsed. Anas and Al-Ḥasan came in to see him and said, ‘Allah has not commanded you to do all of this.’” (3)

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “I was informed by Mubārak ibn Faḍālah, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, who said: ‘I entered with Al-Ḥasan to visit Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād. Grief had wasted him away, and he had a sister who carded cotton for him morning and evening. Al-Ḥasan asked, “How are you, O ʿAlāʾ?” He replied, “Alas, grief upon grief!”’” (4)

Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl also relates from Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Ziyād: “I saw people in a dream following something, so I followed them. Suddenly there appeared an ancient crone, toothless and one-eyed, adorned with every sort of jewelry….”