—that you might seek assistance through it.
But he refused to accept it and said, “I have no need of it.”
The messenger replied, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh, accept from the Commander of the Believers what he has ordered you to take; it will be better for you in his sight. Should you refuse it, I fear he may think ill of you.”
Only then did he accept it.

When the messenger left, he said, “O Abū ʿAlī!”
I answered, “At your service.”
He said, “Lift that ingānah (1) and put it—the purse—underneath it.”
I did so, and we went out.

Later that night Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s bondwoman knocked on our wall and said, “My master is calling his uncle.”
I informed my father; we went out and entered Abū ʿAbd Allāh’s house in the middle of the night.
He said, “Uncle, I have not been able to sleep.”
He asked, “Why?”
He replied, “Because of this money,” and he kept lamenting having taken it. My father soothed him and made things easier for him, saying, “Wait until morning and then decide what to do with it; the night is dark and everyone is in his home.”
So he quieted down and we left.

Before dawn he sent for ʿAbdūs ibn Mālik and al-Ḥasan ibn al-Bazzār; they both came (2), along with a group that included Hārūn the porter, Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ, Ibn al-Dawraqī, my father, myself, Ṣāliḥ, and ʿAbd Allāh.
We began listing everyone they could recall among the discreet and righteous people of Baghdad and Kūfa. He then dispatched portions to Abū Kurayb, to al-Ashajj, and to anyone else whose need was known. He distributed the entire sum, giving each between fifty and one hundred—sometimes two hundred—until not a single dirham remained in the pouch (3).

Some time thereafter the governor Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm and his son Muḥammad died, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq took charge of Baghdad. A messenger came to Abū ʿAbd Allāh, so he went to him. The messenger read to him a letter from al-Mutawakkil and said, “He orders you to travel”—meaning to Sāmarrāʾ.