—an ʿIjlī by allegiance, their freedman, a native of Kūfah, better known as Ibn al-Sammāk.

He heard hadith from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, al-Aʿmash, Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, and a number of others, though his narrations are not numerous.

Among those who reported from him are Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, the devout Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr, and others besides them.

Ibn Numayr said of him, “He is trustworthy.”

The author remarks: “None of his material is found in the Six Books. He is the one who used to say, ‘Many a thing that fails to benefit does no harm; but knowledge—when it fails to benefit—positively harms.’”

It is related that he once preached and declared, “O Commander of the Believers! You will have a standing before Allah, and from that standing you will be dismissed—so look to where your destination will be.” Hārūn al-Rashīd wept copiously at this.

They also say that Ibn al-Sammāk entered upon a high official to intercede for a poor man and said:

“I have come to you with a need. If the request is met, both the petitioner and the giver are ennobled; if it is refused, both are abased. So choose for yourself the dignity of generosity over the humiliation of withholding, and the honor of success over the disgrace of rejection.”

From him as well: “The ambition of the intelligent lies in salvation and escape, whereas the ambition of the fool lies in diversion and pleasure. How astonishing that an eye can relish sleep while the Angel of Death shares its pillow! How long will preachers go on raising the banners of the Hereafter until it is as though souls are already standing before it and eyes fixed upon it? Will no one wake from his slumber, rouse from his heedlessness, recover from his stupor, or tremble at his downfall? You labor and labor for this world—will you not allot some portion of yourself to the next? By Allah, were you to behold the Resurrection surging with its terrors and the Fire looming over its people, and…"