he would fail to understand him, so my grandfather would switch to Persian and set the meat down between the man and me.

He then took a platter that was beside him; dates and walnuts were put upon it, and he began to eat while passing some to the guest.

Al-Maymūnī said, “I would often ask Abū ʿAbd Allāh about a matter, and he would answer, ‘At your service, at your service.’”

Al-Marwaḍhī related, “I never saw the poor treated with more honour than in the gathering of Aḥmad. He inclined toward them and kept his distance from worldly people. He was forbearing, never hasty, exceedingly humble; serenity and dignity enveloped him. When he sat after ʿAṣr to give fatwā, he would not speak until he was asked, and when he went out to his mosque he never pushed himself to the foremost place.”

ʿAbd Allāh said, “I once saw my father place the ants under solemn warning to leave his house; after that I watched as the ants—black ants—filed out, and I never saw them again.”

Of his generosity:

Al-Khallāl reports: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad said:

Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Ḥanīfah, the tutor, said, “I used to visit your father, and he would hand me three dirhams—sometimes less, sometimes more. He would sit with me and converse; at times he would give me something and say, ‘I have given you half of what we possess.’

“One day I came and stayed a long while in his company. Then he went out with four loaves tucked beneath his cloak and said, ‘This is half of what we have.’

“I replied, ‘They are dearer to me than four thousand from anyone else.’”

Al-Marwaḍhī said, “I saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh when one of his relatives came to him; he gave him two dirhams. Another man arrived, so he sent to the grocer and gave him half a dirham.”

And from Yaḥyā ibn Hilāl: “I came to Aḥmad, and he gave me four dirhams.”