leaving the court.

Yaḥyā said to him, “O Judge, you have delighted the Commander of the Believers today, and he has ordered a sum of money for you. What brought this about?”

Ḥafṣ replied, “May Allah complete the Commander of the Believers’ joy and grant him the finest protection and care. I have done nothing beyond what I do every day.”

Yaḥyā asked, “Nothing else at all?”

He answered, “So far as I know, only that I issued a writ against Marzubān the Magian for the debt he owed.”

Yaḥyā said, “That is what pleased the Commander of the Believers.”

Ḥafṣ exclaimed, “Praise be to Allah, abundantly!”

Later, Umm Jaʿfar said to Hārūn, “There can be no peace between you and me unless you dismiss Ḥafṣ.” He refused, but when she pressed him he removed Ḥafṣ from the Eastern District and appointed him judge of Kūfa, where he remained for thirteen years (1).

It is related that when Ḥafṣ first took office, Abū Yūsuf said to his companions, “Come, let us record Ḥafṣ’s odd rulings.” Yet when Ḥafṣ’s decisions reached Abū Yūsuf, those same companions asked, “Where are the oddities you said you would collect?”

He replied, “Woe to you! Ḥafṣ sought Allah, and Allah granted him success.” (2)

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “I saw the front of Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth’s mouth—his teeth—capped with gold.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal reported: “I heard my father speak about the hadith transmitted by Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAtāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet ﷺ: ‘Cover the faces of your dead and do not imitate the Jews.’ (3) My father rejected it and said, ‘He made a mistake; Ḥajjāj narrated it to us from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAtāʾ as a mursal report.’”