—do you trample on my neck while I am in prostration? By Allah, Allah will never forgive you for this!’
Then Allah said, ‘Does he presume to swear an oath over Me? I have, indeed, forgiven him.’ (1)

Through this same chain Maʿmar also related—from a man of Quraysh who traced the report back—that Allah, Exalted be He, says: ‘The most beloved of My servants to Me are those who love one another for My sake, those who frequent My mosques, and those who seek forgiveness at dawn. These are the people whom, when I resolve to punish My creation, I remember, and so I turn My punishment away from My creation.’ (2)

Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Maʿmarī said: Maʿmar remarked, ‘We pursued this discipline with no proper intention; thereafter Allah granted us the right intention.’

ʿAbd al-Razzaq said: Maʿmar informed us, stating, ‘It used to be said: A man may seek knowledge for motives other than Allah, yet knowledge will refuse to serve him until it is sought for Allah alone.’

I say: Indeed—at the outset he seeks it moved by a love of knowledge, a desire to dispel ignorance from himself, a wish for posts, and the like. He may not yet know that sincerity and purity of intention are obligatory. When he learns this, he calls himself to account and fears the consequence of his aim; then a wholly—or at least partially—righteous intention comes to him, and he may repent of his corrupt aim and feel remorse.

A sign of such sincerity is that he restrains himself from grand claims, from the love of disputation, and from seeking to inflate himself through his knowledge; he belittles his own worth. But if he shows off his learning or says, ‘I am more knowledgeable than so-and-so,’ then away with him!

Hishām ibn Yūsuf the judge said: Maʿmar presented these hadiths to Hammām ibn Munabbih and heard from him, by direct audition, close to thirty reports.

Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr said: I heard Ibn Maʿīn say, ‘When al-Thawri entered Yemen—’