al-Tammār, nor from Ibn Maʿīn, nor from anyone who had been put to the test and yielded to it (1).

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Maymūnī said: “It has been established for me that he—meaning Aḥmad—did not attend Abū Naṣr al-Tammār when he was dying, and I presume that this was because of the answer he had given during the ordeal (2).”

I say: He answered only out of dissimulation and fear of punishment, yet he remains trustworthy in himself—praise be to Allah.

Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Ward related: the muezzin of Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith told me, “I saw Bishr—may Allah have mercy on him—in a dream. I asked, ‘What has Allah done with you?’ He replied, ‘He forgave me.’ I said, ‘And what of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal?’ He said, ‘He has been forgiven.’ I asked, ‘And what of Abū Naṣr al-Tammār?’ He said, ‘Alas! That man is in ʿIlliyyīn.’ I asked, ‘By what did he attain what you two did not?’ He replied, ‘Through his poverty and his patience with his little daughters (3).’ ”

Muslim transmitted nothing from Abū Naṣr except a single hadith, which has come down to us with a matching chain. ʿImād ibn Badrān and Yūsuf ibn Ghāliyah informed us, saying:
“Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir told us; Saʿīd ibn al-Bannāʾ told us; Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Busrī told us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān told us; Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī told us; Abū Naṣr al-Tammār told us; Ḥammād ibn Salamah told us, from Ayyūb, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar:

That the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited the verse, “On the Day when mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds” (Quran 83:6), and said, “They will stand until the sweat reaches the tips of their ears” (4).