our lives. It is as though the decree has already come down. So fear Allah, fear Allah! Our children only want to live off us, and these are but a few short days; this is nothing but a trial.

My father said, “I replied, ‘I hope Allah will keep you safe from what you fear.’”

He answered, “How can that be when you people will not give up their food or their gifts? If you left them, they would leave you. What are we waiting for? It is only death—either to Paradise or to Hellfire. Glad tidings, then, to the one who meets his Lord upon goodness.”

I said, “Were you not instructed that whatever wealth comes to you without your having set your heart on it or asked for it, you may take it?”

He replied, “I accepted once without coveting it, but the second and the third time—did your own soul not begin to covet it?”

I said, “Did not Ibn ʿUmar and Ibn ʿAbbās accept such gifts?”

He said, “That case is completely different!”

And he added, “If I knew that this money was taken from its rightful source, containing no injustice and no partiality, I would have no objection to it.”

Hanbal said: When Abū ʿAbd Allah’s illness dragged on, al-Mutawakkil kept sending the physician Ibn Māsawayh, who would prescribe medicines for him, yet he would not treat himself. Ibn Māsawayh came in and said, “Commander of the Believers, Ahmad is not really sick; it is only because of little food, constant fasting, and worship.” Al-Mutawakkil remained silent.

When news of Abū ʿAbd Allah reached al-Mutawakkil’s mother she said to her son, “I wish to see this man.” Al-Mutawakkil therefore wrote to Abū ʿAbd Allah asking him to visit his son al-Muʿtazz, pray for him, greet him, and hold him in his lap.

Abū ʿAbd Allah at first declined, then agreed, hoping that he might be released and allowed to return to Baghdad. Al-Mutawakkil sent him a robe of honour and a mount to ride to al-Muʿtazz, but he refused it. He was wearing a coarse cotton cloak patterned with leopards; they brought him a merchant’s mule, and he rode it. Al-Mutawakkil sat with his mother in a part of the room behind a thin curtain, watching as Abū ʿAbd Allah entered upon al-Muʿtazz and they both observed him.

When she saw him, she said, “My son, fear Allah concerning this man. He is not someone who seeks what you possess, and it is of no benefit to detain him from his home. Give him leave to depart.”