until he is finished.

So I went to Junayd the barber—who was himself a ḥadith transmitter—and instructed him accordingly. He agreed. Yet when he had taken only half of al-Aʿmash’s hair he asked, “Abū Muḥammad, what is the ḥadith of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit regarding a woman with chronic, non-menstrual bleeding (mustaḥāḍa)?”

Al-Aʿmash let out a loud cry, jumped up, and ran off, leaving half of his hair uncut for a whole month. This story was heard from him by ʿAlī ibn Khushram.

ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus said: “Al-Aʿmash once went out and a soldier pressed him into service to help him cross a river. When al-Aʿmash mounted, he recited, ‘Glory be to Him who has subjected this to us’ (Q 43:13). When they reached mid-stream al-Aʿmash said, ‘My Lord, set me ashore at a blessed landing place, for You are the best of those who bring to shore’ (Q 23:29); then the soldier hurled him into the water.”

Ishāq ibn Abī Bakr informed us; Yūsuf ibn Khalīl informed us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Labbān informed us; Abū ʿAlī the reciter informed us; Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Salm narrated to us; al-Abbār narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Zayd ibn al-Hubāb, from Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, said:

“I recited before al-Aʿmash and asked him, ‘How did you find my recitation?’ He answered, ‘No non-Arab has ever recited to me better than you.’”

Through this same chain to Abū Nuʿaym: Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Khuzzaz al-Ṭabarānī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb al-Mawṣilī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd said:

“A dignified man with a large beard came to al-Aʿmash and asked him a very simple question regarding the prayer. Al-Aʿmash turned to us and said, ‘Look at him! His beard could carry four thousand ḥadiths, yet his question is one the schoolchildren ask.’”

Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd said: “Whenever al-Aʿmash was asked about a ḥadith and could not recall it, he would sit in the sun and rub his eyes with both hands, and he would keep doing so until he remembered it.”

Ibrāhīm ibn Rustum al-Aṣbahānī reported to us, from Abū ʿIṣma, from al-Aʿmash, who said: “The sign that a deed has been accepted is the onset of waswasa (whispering misgivings), because the People of the Two Scriptures know nothing of waswasa; that is because their deeds…”