Ibn Abī Dhuhl said: I heard Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Daghūlī remark, “There are four volumes that never leave me, whether I am travelling or at home; whenever I depart the city they accompany me: the book of al-Muzanī, the Kitāb al-ʿAyn, al-Bukhārī’s History, and the book Kalīla wa Dimna.”
Al-Ḥākim relates: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith told me; Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Daghūlī told us; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā told us; Yaḥyā al-Wuḥāẓī told us; and Umm Hāshim, the freedwoman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr, reported:
“While I was performing ablution (wuḍūʾ) for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr, a Companion of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—he suddenly collapsed unconscious, meaning that he died without warning.”
Al-Ḥākim adds that al-Daghūlī said:
“Among the scholars are some who vanished unexpectedly and were never found. Among them were ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, who disappeared on the Day of al-Jamājim (1); Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, whose grave has never been located; and Badal ibn al-Muḥabbar, who was missed and no one knows where he went.
“Then he mentioned a group who died suddenly, such as al-Shaʿbī, Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, and al-Awzāʿī.”
Al-Ḥākim says: I asked Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Daghūlī about his grandfather’s death, and he replied, “In the year 325 AH.”
I read to Sharaf al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn al-Dimashqī in the year 693 AH, from Abū Rūḥ al-Harawī, who informed us from Abū al-Qāsim