Al-Khallāl relates: al-Marwadhī narrated to us. He said: I said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh, “A man has told me, ‘From here all the way to the lands of the Turks people are praying for you. How, then, will you repay the gratitude for what Allah has bestowed upon you and for the favor He has spread for you among the people?’”
He replied, “I ask Allah not to make us pretenders.”
ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān and Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad informed us: Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir informed us; Saʿīd ibn al-Bannāʾ informed us; ʿAlī ibn al-Busrī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhaḍḍiṣ narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh al-Baghawī narrated, saying:
“I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in the year 228 AH, at its very beginning, after he had transmitted the hadith of Muʿāwiyah from the Prophet ﷺ:
‘Nothing remains of this world except affliction and turmoil (1). So equip yourselves for affliction with patience.’
Then he began to say repeatedly, ‘O Allah, make us content; O Allah, make us content.’”
Al-Musallam ibn ʿAllān—and others, in writing—reported that Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī had informed them. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Faraj al-Bazzāz narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Māsī narrated to us; Jaʿfar ibn Shuʿayb al-Shāshī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Shāshī narrated to me; Ibrāhīm ibn Umayyah narrated to me; I heard Ṭāhir ibn Khalaf; I heard al-Muhtadī bi-Allāh, Muḥammad son of al-Wāthiq, say: