From Ibn al-Mubārak: “Let your regular gathering be with the poor, and beware of sitting with a person of religious innovation.”

Al-Ḥasan ibn al-Rabīʿ related: When Ibn al-Mubārak was on his death-bed while travelling, he said, “I long for sawiq (a drink made from roasted grain flour).” We found it only with a man employed by the ruler who was travelling with us on the boat. We informed ʿAbdullāh of that and he said, “Leave it.” He died without drinking it.

Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Aswad said: When Jahm was mentioned in Ibn al-Mubārak’s presence, he recited:

I marvel at a devil who came to the people as a preacher,
calling them to the Fire, and his very name is cleft from Jahannam.

Ishāq al-Asadī told us; Ibn Khalīl told us; ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad told us; Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥaddād told us; Abū Nuʿaym the ḥāfiẓ told us; Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḥulwānī narrated to us; Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān narrated to us; from Ibn al-Mubārak, from Maʿmar, from Muḥammad ibn Ḥamzah, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām, who said:

Whenever hardship befell the Prophet ﷺ and his household, he would command them to pray, then recite: “And enjoin prayer upon your family and persevere in it. We do not ask you for provision; We provide for you” (1).

This report is mursal—the link between Muḥammad and his grandfather ʿAbdullāh is missing.

Ibn al-Mubārak, may Allah have mercy on him, was a skilled poet who spoke the truth.

Aḥmad ibn Jamīl al-Marwazī said: It was said to Ibn al-Mubārak, “Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah has been appointed as a judge,” so he wrote to him:

O you who turn knowledge into a hunting hawk
with which to seize the wealth of the poor…

(1) Quran 20:132.