and added, “Your crop remains entirely yours.”

The ʿUmari leapt to his feet, kissed Mūsā’s head and said, “Allah knows best where He places His messages.” From then on he prayed for him constantly.

Abū al-Ḥasan said to the close attendants who had wanted to kill the man, “Which is better: what you were intent on doing, or what I intended—namely, to set his affair right with this small amount?”

I said, “If this report is sound, it is the very pinnacle of forbearance and generosity.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Maḥāmilī related: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Saʿd told us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Kinānī al-Laythī told me; ʿĪsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Mughīth al-Qurashī—who had reached ninety years of age—told me:

“I planted watermelons, cucumbers and gourds at al-Juwwāniyya. When the harvest was near, a swarm of locusts descended during the night and devoured the entire crop. All told, including the price of two camels, I had spent one hundred and twenty dinars.

While I was sitting there, Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar appeared, greeted me and asked, ‘How are you faring?’

I replied, ‘I have become like scorched land.’

He said, ‘How much have you spent on it?’

I answered, ‘One hundred and twenty dinars, including the cost of the two camels.’ Then I said, ‘O blessed one, please go in and supplicate for it.’

He entered and prayed, and he told me that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘Hold fast to what remains after calamities.’ (1)

I then tethered the two camels there and watered the field; Allah placed blessing in it, it flourished, and I ended up selling its produce for ten thousand dinars.

Aṣ-Ṣūlī said: ʿAwn ibn Muḥammad related to us; I heard Isḥāq al-Mawṣilī more than once say:

Al-Faḍl ibn ar-Rabīʿ told me, on the authority of his father: When al-Mahdī imprisoned Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar, he saw in a dream ʿAlī saying, ‘O Muḥammad: “Would you then, if you were given authority, cause corruption in the land and sever your ties of kinship?”’ [Muḥammad 47:22].

Ar-Rabīʿ said: He summoned me in the night, which startled me. I went to him and found him reciting that verse—he had the most beautiful voice of anyone—and he said, ‘Bring me Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar.’

I brought him; he embraced him, seated him next to himself and said, ‘O Abū al-Ḥasan, I have seen the Commander…’