so Muḥammad took her back, even though he had already spent the purchase price. That transaction was what landed him in prison, and she is the very woman whom Salm ibn Ziyād married and took to Khurasan. Her father’s nickname was Karkirah. (1)

Al-Madaʾinī (2) said: The reason he was jailed was that he had bought oil for forty thousand dirhams. He later found a mouse in one of the skins, assumed it had fallen into the press itself, and poured out the entire stock. He would say, “I have been tried because of a sin I committed thirty years ago.”

He added: People thought the sin was that he had once mocked a man for his poverty. (3)

Ismāʿīl (4) ibn Zakariyyā, quoting ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, from Ibn Sīrīn, reported:

“There was a time when no one asked about the chain of transmission for a hadith. But once the fitna (civil strife) erupted, people began to inquire about the isnād. If a narrator belonged to the people of innovation, his hadith was left aside.” (5)

Ashʿath said: Whenever Ibn Sīrīn (6) was asked about what is lawful and unlawful, his complexion would change until you would think he was not the same person. (7)

Yūnus said: Ibn Sīrīn was given to laughter and playful banter.

Hushaym reported from Manṣūr:

“Muḥammad would laugh until tears came to his eyes, whereas al-Ḥasan would relate traditions to us and weep.” (8)