kept saying “Āmīn.” When Friday dawned he sent for my brother and me.
When he completed his recitation he began to supplicate while we responded “Āmīn.” After he had finished, he went on repeating, “I seek Allah’s guidance… I seek Allah’s guidance,” several times.
I kept wondering, “What is he intending?”
Then he said, “I am binding myself to Allah with a pledge—and His pledge will surely be questioned—while the Exalted has said: ‘O you who believe, fulfil the covenants’ (al-Māʾidah 1). I hereby vow that I shall never again relate any hadith in full until I meet Allah, and I make no exception for any of you.”
We withdrew, and ʿAlī ibn al-Jahm came in; when we informed him, he said, “Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we return.”
Al-Mutawakkil was told of the matter.
[Abū ʿAbd Allāh] added, “All they want is for me to narrate so that this town becomes my prison. Those who have stayed on here did so only because they were given something and accepted it; they were ordered, so they narrated. By Allah, I longed for death in the previous ordeal, and I long for death in both that one and this. This is the trial of this world (1), whereas that was the trial of religion.”
He would then clasp his fingers together and say, “If my soul were in my own hand, I would release it,” and then he would spread out his fingers (2).
Al-Mutawakkil continued to inquire about him frequently, and in the meantime he ordered gifts of money for us, saying, “Do not let their shaykh find out and become distressed. What does he want of them? If he does not care for worldly gain himself, why does he stop them?!”
People said to al-Mutawakkil, “He does not eat your food, nor sit on your bedding, and he declares unlawful what you drink.”
He replied, “Even if al-Muʿtaṣim were resurrected and spoke against him, I would not accept it.”
Ṣāliḥ relates: “After that I went down to Baghdad, leaving ʿAbd Allāh with him. Soon ʿAbd Allāh arrived, and I asked, ‘What has happened to you?’ He answered, ‘He ordered me to come down, and he said: Tell Ṣāliḥ…’”}