“A curious incident: I once went out to my orchard in al-Ghābah when a man confronted me and said, ‘Take off your clothes.’

I asked, ‘Why?’

He replied, ‘Because I am your brother, and I have nothing to wear.’

I said, ‘What about sharing?’

He answered, ‘You have enjoyed those clothes long enough.’

I said, ‘So you will leave me naked?’

He retorted, ‘We have transmitted from Mālik that he said, “There is no harm in a man bathing while nude.”’

I said, ‘But my private parts will be exposed.’

He replied, ‘Had anyone been likely to meet you here, I would never have stopped you.’

I said, ‘Let me enter my orchard and send the clothes out to you.’

He said, ‘No. You only want to summon your servants; stay where you are.’

I said, ‘Then I swear to you…’

He said, ‘An oath given to a thief carries no weight.’

So I swore to him: ‘I will indeed send them to you, willingly and with a content heart.’

He lowered his gaze for a moment, then said, ‘I have reviewed the exploits of thieves from the time of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—up to our day, and I have never found a thief who took anything on credit. I would hate to introduce such an innovation.’ So I removed my clothes and handed them to him.

I have found no record of his date of death.

143 – Zayd ibn Bishr, Abū Bishr al-Azdī *
The erudite scholar, jurist of the Maghrib, Abū Bishr al-Azdī—some say al-Ḥaḍramī—of the Mālikī school.

He met Ibn Luhayʿah.

He heard ḥadith from Ibn Wahb, Rushdīn ibn Saʿd, and Ashhab.

Among those who narrated from him were Abū Zurʿah, Sulaymān ibn Sālim, Yaḥyā ibn ʿUmar, and Saʿīd ibn Isḥāq of Ifrīqiyah.

He was one of the foremost students of Ibn Wahb.

Abū Zurʿah said, ‘A righteous, sensible man. He travelled to the West and died there, and he is trustworthy.’

Abū ʿUmar al-Kindī said, ‘He was of pure Azd stock, though his grandmother was a freedwoman of Ḥaḍramawt.’

He was raised in the household of Ibn Luhayʿah, yet never heard ḥadith directly from him.