“I saw in a dream that I was climbing a very long ladder; I went up ninety-nine rungs, and everyone to whom I related the dream said, ‘You will live ninety-nine years.’

Ibn Ḥamdān remarks: And that is exactly what happened.

I, however, say: Rather, he reached either ninety-seven or ninety-five years, for Abū Isḥāq al-Muzakkī reports from him that he said, ‘I was born in the year 218 AH, and I have completed, on behalf of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace), twelve thousand full readings of the Qur’an, and I have offered twelve thousand sacrificial animals on his behalf.’

I add: The evidence for this practice is the hadith transmitted by Shurayk, from Abū al-Ḥasnāʾ, from al-Ḥakam, from Ḥanash, who said: ‘I saw ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—sacrificing two rams. I asked him, “What is this?” He replied, “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) instructed me to sacrifice on his behalf.” (1)’

Al-Tirmidhī adds: ‘One on behalf of the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) and one on his own behalf.’

Al-Musallam ibn ʿAllān and al-Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad wrote to us, saying:

Al-Kindī informed us; al-Qazzāz informed us; al-Khaṭīb informed us; Riḍwān ibn Muḥammad in Dīnawar informed us; Ḥamd ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣbahānī narrated to us; Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Aḥmad al-Ardastānī narrated to us; Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Thaqafī narrated to us: I heard Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Darāmī say:

‘Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Ṣanʿānī came to visit me during an illness and said, “May Allah set right your slip, elevate your rank in the Garden, and free you to devote yourself to the worship of your Lord.”’

We have been told that someone once said to Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj—while he was still transcribing hadith in his middle years from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib—‘How long are you going to keep at this?’ He replied, ‘Do you not know that a devotee of hadith can never sit idle?!’