and he said, “What business is this of yours, lad?”
I add: Such was the practice of the early generations—they would warn against over-subtle probing and would brand the argumentative folk as innovators.
He passed away in the year 195, or perhaps 196 AH.
Fifteen years before him, Bishr ibn Manṣūr al-Sulaymī—one of the practicing scholars—had died.
110 – al-Amīn, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Rashīd Hārūn *
He is the caliph Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad, son of Hārūn al-Rashīd, son of al-Mahdī Muḥammad, son of al-Manṣūr; a Hāshimī, an ʿAbbāsid, a Baghdādī.
His mother was Zubaydah, the daughter of the amīr Jaʿfar ibn al-Manṣūr.
His father appointed him heir to the caliphate after him. He was handsome, of striking beauty—fair-skinned, good-looking, tall, strong, courageous, cultivated, and eloquent—yet a poor administrator, excessively
= See Ibn al-Qayyim, Al-Hijratayn, pp. 387, 401, and Ibn Hajar, Fath al-bari, 3/191. The sound position upheld by the leading scholars—and accepted by numerous Qur’an exegetes and theologians—is that these children are in Paradise. Their proof is the report in al-Bukhari’s Sahih, 12/384, from Samura b. Jundub: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ often asked his Companions, “Has anyone seen a dream?” They would relate what Allah willed, until one morning he said, “Two visitors came to me last night….” He then explained: “The children you saw around him are every child who died upon the fitra (innate nature).” Some Muslims asked, “Messenger of Allah, what about the children of the polytheists?” He replied, “And the children of the polytheists.” This rigorously authentic hadith states plainly that they are in Paradise, and the dreams of the prophets are revelation. See also Sharh al-sunna, 1/153, 162.
(*) Al-Ma‘arif, pp. 384–386; Tarikh al-Tabari, 8/365; Tarikh Baghdad, 3/336; Al-Kamil by Ibn al-Athir, 6/221; Al-Ibar, 1/325; Duwal al-Islam, 1/124; Al-Bidaya, 10/222; Tarikh al-khulafa’, p. 297; Shadharat al-dhahab, 1/350; Al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat, 5/135; ‘Uyun al-tawarikh, 7, fol. 117.