Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Samʿūn said: Aḥmad b. Sulaymān al-Qaṭīʿī narrated to us:
“I fell into dire straits, so I went to Ibrāhīm al-Harbī to pour out my worries to him (1). He said to me, ‘Do not let your heart be troubled, for Allah is the One who stands behind every aid. I too was once so hard-pressed that my dependants had nothing to eat. My wife said, “Granted that you and I can endure, what about the two little girls? Bring one of your books so we may sell or pawn it.” I could not bring myself to part with my books and replied, “Tomorrow I shall borrow something.” That night the door was knocked. “Who is it?” I asked. “A neighbor,” came the answer. I extinguished the lamp so he might come in unseen—I even poured something over the flame. He entered, left something, and departed. It turned out to be a cloth filled with various dishes of food and a sheet of paper holding five hundred dirhams. We woke the little ones and they ate. The next morning a camel-driver arrived, leading two camels loaded with silver coin, asking for my house. He said, “These two camels have been dispatched to you by a man from Khurasan, and he made me swear not to reveal who he is.” (2) (3) (4)’
Its chain of transmission is mursal.
Al-Ḥusayn b. Fahm, the ḥāfiẓ, said: “Your eyes will never behold anyone like Ibrāhīm al-Harbī, the imam of the age. I have seen and sat with many scholars, yet I have never encountered a man more complete than he.”
Al-Ḥākim said: I heard Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ the judge say, “We know of no one whom Baghdad has produced to rival Ibrāhīm al-Harbī in literature, jurisprudence, hadith, and asceticism.”
I say: He means someone in whom all four of these qualities were united.