in Ibn al-Mubārak’s face the mark of hardship; when he went out he sent him four thousand dirhams and wrote:
A youth whose purse is empty, yet whose honour is intact;
He gave to you before you could ask, sparing you the pain of petition.
Al-Musayyab ibn Wāḍiḥ said: Ibn al-Mubārak sent Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh four thousand dirhams with the message, “Use them to quell the people’s trouble around you.”
ʿAlī ibn Khushram related: I asked ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, “How did Ibn al-Mubārak surpass you when he was no older than you?”
He answered, “He would arrive with Khurasani attendants and fine garments, visit the scholars and give to them, whereas we could not manage that.”
Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād said: Ibn al-Mubārak came to Aylah to see Yūnus ibn Yazīd, accompanied by a servant assigned solely to prepare falūdhaj, which he made for the hadith scholars.
Ibn Abī al-Khayr recorded for us in his book—through ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad, al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad, Abū Nuʿaym, ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaʿfar, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbdullāh, Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād, and al-Walīd ibn Muslim—that Ibn al-Mubārak narrated from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Blessing is with your elders (1).’”
I asked al-Walīd, “Where did you hear this from Ibn al-Mubārak?”
He replied, “On campaign.”