in a dream and asked him, “What of al-Hasan al-Basri?”

“He is an angel in Paradise who never disobeys,” came the reply.

“And Ibn Sirin?”

“He is enjoying whatever he pleases and desires—yet how far apart the two of them are!”

“By what means did al-Hasan attain that rank?”

“Through the severity of his fear and his sorrow.” (1)

A group who had heard al-Muḥāribī reported that Ḥajjāj ibn Dīnār said:

“Al-Ḥakam ibn Jaḥl was a close friend of Ibn Sirin, and he grieved for him so deeply that he himself fell ill and people began to visit him.

“Later he said, ‘I saw him in a dream in such-and-such a state, and when that delighted me I asked him, “How has al-Hasan fared?”’

“He replied, ‘He has been elevated seventy degrees above me.’

“I said, ‘By what? We used to think you were above him!’

“He answered, ‘By his prolonged sorrow.’” (2)

Al-Awzaʿi, acting on the advice of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, set out for Basra to meet Muḥammad ibn Sirin. He arrived to find him in the throes of his final illness; he visited him but was unable to hear anything from him—may Allah Most High show him mercy.

I have also been informed that his mother’s name was Ṣafiyya, a freedwoman of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq.

247 – Anas ibn Sirin * (ʿ)

He was the last of the brothers to pass away, and he was once brought in to visit Zayd ibn Thābit. (3)

He transmitted hadith from Jundub al-Bajali, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Masrūq.

Among those who narrated from him are Ibn ʿAwn, Khālid, Shuʿbah, the two Ḥammāds, Hammām, Abān al-ʿAṭṭār, and many others.