And it was reported from Ibn al-Mubārak that he was asked, “Who are the base people (as-siflah)?” He replied, “The one who haunts the courts, running after the judges in search of chances to testify.”

He also said, “The clear-sighted are never safe from four things: a past sin—the servant does not know what Allah will do with it; a span of life that remains—he does not know what destruction may lie in it; a favor that has been bestowed upon him—it may be a ruse and a gradual enticement (istidraj); and a misguidance that has been beautified so that he imagines it to be guidance. Indeed, should the heart deviate for but an instant, a person may be stripped of his religion without even noticing.”

Manṣūr ibn Dīnār, one of his companions, said, “While he was staying in Baghdad, ʿAbd Allāh used to give a dinar in charity every single day.”

ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Sukkarī reported: “Whenever ʿAbd Allāh completed a full recitation of the Quran, he preferred that his supplication be made while he was in prostration.”

Ibrāhīm ibn Nūḥ al-Mawṣilī said, “When Hārūn al-Rashīd reached ʿAyn Zarbah (1), he ordered Abū Sulaym to bring Ibn al-Mubārak to him. I said, ‘I fear Ibn al-Mubārak might answer him in a manner he dislikes and the caliph could kill him. So I said, “O Commander of the Faithful! He is a man of harsh temperament, coarse in manner.” ’ At that al-Rashīd desisted.”

Al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad al-Shaʿrānī narrated to us: ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān said, “I heard a man ask Ibn al-Mubārak about someone who fasts one day and breaks the fast the next. He answered, ‘This is a man who is wasting half of his life without realizing it,’ meaning: why does he not fast those other days as well?”

I say: I assume that Ibn al-Mubārak did not, on that occasion, cite the hadith: “The best …”