so they were presented to him. He then said to his son, “Why is it that your servant is not carrying your tablet?”

The son answered, “He has died and thus found relief from the kuttāb (elementary Qur’an school).”

The father replied, “So death is easier for you than the kuttāb?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Very well, then give up the kuttāb,” the father declared.

He (the tutor) continued: “After that I came to him, and he asked, ‘How do you feel about your tutor?’

I replied, ‘How could I not love him? He was the first to loosen my tongue with the remembrance of Allah, and, beyond that, whenever he wishes he can make you laugh and whenever he wishes he can make you weep.’

He said, ‘O Rāshid, summon (1) this man.’

So he had me brought in. I began recounting the stories of the caliphs and their exhortations, and he wept profusely… Then I began again and related the Bedouins’ witty anecdotes, whereupon he laughed heartily and said to me, ‘You have made me famous, you have made me famous.’

Among the works of Ibn Abī al-Dunyā that have reached me are: al-qināʿa (Contentment); qaṣr al-amal (Short Hopes); mujābī al-daʿwa (Those Whose Supplications Are Answered); al-tawakkul (Reliance on Allah); al-wajal (Awe); dhamm al-malāhī (Condemnation of Amusements); al-ṣamt (Silence); al-faraj baʿd al-shidda (Relief After Hardship); qirā al-ḍayf (Hospitality to the Guest); man ʿāsha baʿd al-mawt (Those Who Lived After Death); al-muḥtaḍarīn (Those in Their Last Agonies); al-mudārā (Forbearance) — incomplete; muḥāsabat al-nafs (Self-Accountability); dhamm al-muskir (Condemnation of Intoxicants); al-yaqīn (Certitude); al-tawbah (Repentance); al-shukr (Gratitude); al-mawt (Death); al-qubūr (The Graves); al-ʿuzla (Seclusion); and other works besides.

Arranged alphabetically, his compilations include: Kitāb al-adab (Book of Etiquette); iṣṭināʿ al-maʿrūf (Doing Good); al-ashrāf (The Nobles); akhbār Ḍaygham (Reports about Ḍaygham); iṣlāḥ al-māl (Managing Wealth); al-anwāʾ (Celestial Influences); akhbār al-mulūk (Reports of Kings); al-akhlāq (Morals); al-ikhwān (Companions); al-infrād (Solitude); akhbār al-Thawrī (Accounts of al-Thawrī); al-alwiya (The Banners); al-awliyāʾ (The Saints); al-amr bi-l-maʿrūf (Commanding Good); al-alḥān (Melodies); al-aḥzān (Griefs); akhbār Uways (Accounts of Uways); akhbār Muʿāwiya (Accounts of Muʿāwiya); al-aḍḥiyya (The Sacrificial Animal); al-ikhlāṣ (Sincerity); al-ayyām wa-l-layālī (The Days and the Nights); ahwāl al-qiyāmah (The Terrors of the Resurrection); aʿlām al-nubuwwah (Signs of Prophethood); inzāl al-ḥājah bi-llāh (Presenting One’s Need to Allah); akhbār Quraysh (Accounts of Quraysh); and—