on the mare’s face, and fluid from her eye was running down her cheek.

So we said, “If Ibn ʿAwn is ever going to lose his composure, it will be today.”

Not long after, he came down, and when he caught sight of the camel he exclaimed, “Subhan Allah! Could you not have struck her anywhere but the face? May Allah bless you. Leave me now—bear witness that he is free.”

Ibn Saʿd said: Bakkar related to us, saying, “Ibn ʿAwn’s garments used to reach the backs of his feet, and he was the husband of my aunt, Umm Muhammad daughter of ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Sirin.”

Abu Qutn said, “I saw that some of Ibn ʿAwn’s teeth were bound with gold.”

Hammad ibn Zayd, from Muhammad ibn Fadaʾ (1), reported: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream, and he said, ‘Visit Ibn ʿAwn, for he loves Allah and His Messenger—or rather, Allah and His Messenger love him.’”

Bakkar ibn Muhammad also said: “Ibn ʿAwn once slipped, injuring his leg; he languished for a while and then died. I was present at his death. He was turned toward the qiblah, remembering Allah Most High until the death-rattle seized him.

“My aunt said, ‘Recite Surah Ya-Sin beside him,’ so I recited it. He died in the pre-dawn hours, and we were not able to perform the funeral prayer for him until we had placed him in the prayer niche of the musalla; the crowds overwhelmed us.

“He passed away owing a debt of a little over ten thousand, and he had instructed that one-fifth of his estate—after his debts were paid—be entrusted to my father for distribution among his needy relatives. Throughout his illness I never heard him complain. They shrouded him in a mantle that had cost two hundred dirhams. He left no money at all—only two houses.

“He died in Rajab of the year 151 AH. The same date was affirmed by Yahya al-Qattan, al-Asmaʿi, Saʿid al-Dubʿi, Abu Nuʿaym, Sulayman ibn Harb, Khalifah, and Ibn Maʿin, and that is the sound report. Al-Muqri and Makki ibn Ibrahim, however, dated his death to 150 AH.”