— and al-Shaʿbī, on hearing of it, exclaimed, “Only yesterday he was reproaching him for rising up against al-Ḥajjāj, and today he is saying this!”

When Ibrāhīm passed away, al-Shaʿbī said, “No one of comparable worth has been left after him.”

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād related: Jarīr narrated to us, from ʿĀṣim, who said: “I accompanied al-Shaʿbī, and as we passed by Ibrāhīm, the latter rose from his seat to greet him. Al-Shaʿbī said to him, ‘I am the more knowledgeable of us while you are alive, but you will be the more knowledgeable once you are dead, for you have students who remain constant at your side and will keep your knowledge alive.’ (1)

Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif reported: Maymūn Abū Ḥamzah al-Aʿwar told me that Ibrāhīm said to him, “I have had to speak, and had I found any alternative I would not have spoken. Indeed, an age in which someone like me is regarded as a jurist is a wretched age.” (2)

Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī said: “I was with Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī when a man entered and said, ‘Abū ʿImrān, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī says: When two Muslims face each other with their swords, the killer and the one killed are both in the Fire.’

Another man remarked, ‘That concerns one who fights for worldly gain; as for fighting someone who rebels, there is no harm in it.’

Ibrāhīm replied, ‘This is exactly what our companions related from Ibn Masʿūd.’

They asked him, ‘Where were you on the Day of al-Zāwiyah? (3)’
He answered, ‘In my house.’

They said, ‘And where were you on the Day of al-Jamājim? (4)’
He replied, ‘In my house.’

They said, ‘Yet ʿAlqamah was present at Ṣiffīn with ʿAlī.’

He responded, ‘Bakh! Bakh! Who among us is like ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the men who were with him?’

Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb said, ‘I was among those who buried Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī at night.’