Two hundred and ten (1).

Bishr ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid said, “I saw Abū Nuʿaym in a dream and asked him, ‘How did Allah deal with you?’—that is, concerning the payment he used to take for ḥadīth. He replied, ‘The Judge looked into my case, found that I had dependants, and so pardoned me (2).’

I remark: It is firmly established that he accepted a small sum for relating ḥadīth because of his poverty.

ʿAlī ibn Khushram said, “I heard Abū Nuʿaym say, ‘They reproach me for taking payment while there are thirteen souls in my household and not a single loaf of bread in the house (3).’”

I comment: They blamed him for receiving payment from the ruler, not from the students.

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Ṭāʾī informed us; Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī related to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī told us; Abū Muḥammad al-Jawharī dictated to us; Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Qaṭīʿī read it to us; Bishr ibn Mūsā narrated to us; Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us; al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Allah—Majestic and Exalted—declares: ‘Fasting is Mine, and I alone reward for it. He abandons his desire, his food, and his drink for My sake. Fasting is a shield. The fasting person has two delights: a delight when he breaks his fast and a delight when he meets Allah. And the odor from the mouth of a fasting person is sweeter to Allah than the fragrance of musk.’”

Al-Bukhārī (4) recorded this in the Book of Tawḥīd through Abū Nuʿaym; our chain reaches him with a shorter isnād.