water through its channels.

The orchard owner then asked him, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh, what do you think of it?”

He replied, “This is the life of this world.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh had a debtor who had deprived him of a large sum of money. When news reached him that the man had arrived in Āmul, while we were with him in Farabr, we said, “You ought to cross over and demand your money from him.”

He answered, “It is not for us to frighten him.”

When the debtor learned that he was in Farabr, he fled to Khwārazm. We said, “You should speak to Abū Salamah al-Kushānī, the governor of Āmul, so that he may write to Khwārazm and have him seized and your right restored to you.”

He replied, “If I take a letter from them, they will then expect a letter from me, and I will not barter my religion for my worldly life.”

We urged him, but he refused, so we approached the ruler without his approval. The ruler wrote to the governor of Khwārazm, and when Abū ʿAbd Allāh was informed of this he was deeply distressed.

He said, “Do not be more solicitous for me than I am for myself.”

He wrote a letter—and followed that with further letters—commanding some of his companions in Khwārazm that his debtor was not to be treated except with kindness.

The debtor then returned to Āmul and headed toward the region of Marw. The merchants gathered, and the ruler was told that Abū ʿAbd Allāh had gone out in pursuit of a debtor of his. The ruler wished to act harshly toward the man, but Abū ʿAbd Allāh disliked this and settled with his debtor that each year he would give him the trifling sum of ten dirhams.

The original amount had been twenty-five thousand.

Not a single dirham of that money ever reached him, nor anything greater (1).

He said: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh say, “I have never personally undertaken the purchase or the sale of anything.”

I asked him, “How is that, when Allah has permitted trade?”

He replied, “Because it involves haggling up and down and all kinds of confusion; I feared that if I involved myself in it I would become just like anyone else.”

I said, “Then who took care of your affairs when you traveled and needed to buy or sell?”

He answered, “That was always taken care of for me (2).”