and Ibn Batta, and Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Samʿūn. It is reported from Ibn Samʿūn that he heard al-Barbahārī say:
“I once saw, in Syria, a monk inside his cell, surrounded by other monks who were rubbing themselves against the cell for blessing. I asked one of their young men, ‘For what reason has this man been so favored?’ He replied, ‘Glory be to Allah! When have you ever seen Allah give something in return for something?’ I said, ‘This needs to be clarified. Allah may indeed bestow on His servant without any prior cause, and He may also bestow on account of a cause; yet the very deed for which He then rewards His servant comes from Him as well.’ The Exalted said: ‘And they will say, “Praise be to Allah who guided us to this; never could we have been guided had Allah not guided us.”’ (1)
Muḥammad ibn Mahdī’s Chronicle records that in the year 323 AH action was taken against al-Barbahārī’s followers, whereupon he went into hiding; his companions were pursued and their homes were plundered. He lived to the age of seventy-seven (2), and toward the end of his life he married a slave-girl.
- ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyān
The imam, master ḥadith scholar, and accomplished authority, Abū Muḥammad al-Hāshimī al-Jaʿfarī—their client—al-Hamadhānī, one of the leading figures and the imam of the central mosque of Hamadhān.
He transmitted hadith from: Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān ibn Ḥabīb, Ibrāhīm ibn Dayzil, Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allah an-Narsī, ʿUbayd ibn Sharīk al-Bazzār, the ḥadith master Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Junayd, ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baghawī, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Karābīsī, al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥakam al-Kūfī, and others of their rank.