He said, “I have been afflicted with having to sit with you after I used to sit with those who kept the company of the Companions; who, then, suffers a calamity greater than mine?”

I answered, “Abū Muḥammad, those who have lived long enough to sit with you after the people who sat with the Companions are in a worse predicament than you.” (1)

Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī narrated from Yaḥyā, from Sufyān, who said:

“Were my only trial that, when I grew old, my companions became mere youths after I had once sat with men who had sat with the Companions, that alone would suffice.”

I replied, “More sorely tried than you is the one who sat with you in your youth after having sat with some of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

Thereupon he fell silent. (2)

ʿAlī ibn Khushram said: Yaḥyā informed me, “I went to Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth. We took supper with him, and he brought out a ʿus (large wooden bucket) (3). He drank, then passed it to Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, who drank, and then handed it to me.

“I asked, ‘Does a large quantity of it intoxicate?’

“He said, ‘Yes, by Allah—and even a small quantity.’

“So I left it.” (4)

Abū Ḥāzim the judge narrated from his father: Yaḥyā ibn Aktham assumed the judiciary of