“Present: From ʿAbd Allah Hārūn, Commander of the Faithful, to ʿAbd Allah ibn Idrīs.”

He said: Ibn Idrīs let out a deep gasp and collapsed after the ẓuhr prayer. We remained with him until ʿaṣr while he was still in that state. Shortly before maghrib he regained consciousness—after we had already poured water over him, yet to no avail.

When he came to, he said, “To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return! So he even knows me well enough to write to me? What sin of mine has reached this point?!”

I say: He was deemed reliable by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khirāsh, and by the scholars at large.

It is also said that he was born in 115 AH and died in Kūfa, in Dhū al-Ḥijjah of 192 AH.

Ibn ʿAmmār al-Mawṣilī stated, “Ibn Idrīs was one of Allah’s righteous servants, an ascetic. His son was even more devout than he. In Kūfa I never met anyone better than ʿAbd Allah ibn Idrīs and ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān.” (1)

Al-Nasāʾī said, “Trustworthy, firmly established.”

Aḥmad ibn Jawwās reported, “I heard Ibn Idrīs say, ‘I was born in 115 AH.’” (2) The same was affirmed by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and a number of others concerning his year of birth; this is the preserved opinion.

Al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Khallāl narrated—from ʿArafah ibn Ismāʿīl—from Ibn Idrīs, who said: “I heard Shuʿbah say, ‘Hammād ibn Abī Sulaymān died in 120 AH.’ Ibn Idrīs then added, ‘And that was the year of my birth.’ This, however, is an isolated report.”