She answered, “A sum regularly comes to me; when it arrives I shall forward it to you.”

Soon ten thousand reached her, so she dispatched the whole amount to him. He bought a maid-servant with it, and she bore him three sons: Muḥammad, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar.

Mālik said, “Ibn al-Munkadir was the foremost of the Qurʾān-reciters.”

Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī reported: Yaḥyā ibn al-Faḍl al-Anīsī told us, “I heard someone relate on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir that while he was standing in prayer one night he suddenly began to weep, and his weeping grew so intense that his family became alarmed. They questioned him, but he could not answer and only wept the more. They therefore sent for Abū Ḥāzim. When he arrived he asked, ‘What has made you weep?’

‘A verse crossed my mind,’ he replied.

‘Which verse is that?’

He said, ‘And there will appear to them from Allah that which they had not expected’ (Q 39:47).

Abū Ḥāzim then wept with him, and their tears increased all the more.

ʿAfīf ibn Sālim narrated, from ʿIkrimah ibn Ibrāhīm, from Ibn al-Munkadir, that when death approached him he became anxious. It was said to him, ‘Why are you distressed?’ He answered, ‘I fear a verse from the Book of Allah: “And there will appear to them from Allah that which they had not expected.” I am afraid that something may appear to me from Allah which I had not anticipated.’

Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir had a neighbour who was afflicted by trials and would raise his voice complaining of them, whereas Muḥammad would raise his voice in praise of Allah.”

ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Uwaysī reported: Mālik told us, “Hardly anyone asked Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir about a hadith without his eyes filling with tears.”

Ibn al-Munkadir himself said, “I strove with my soul for forty years until it became upright.”

Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar narrated, from Muḥammad ibn Sūqah, from Ibn al-Munkadir, who said: “Allah protects the believing servant through his child and his grandchild; He protects him in his home and in the homes surrounding it. They remain under His protection and well-being as long as he is among them.”

And I heard Ibn al-Munkadir say, “Wealth is an excellent aid to God-consciousness.”