101 – ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Azdī reported; Jaʿfar ibn Abī Jaʿfar al-Rāzī reported, from Abū Jaʿfar al-Sāʾiḥ—while Ibn Wahb and others also transmitted it, each adding something to the account—that:

ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Qays was among the finest of worshippers. He obliged himself to perform one thousand rakʿahs (units of prayer) every day. At sunrise he would begin and would not cease standing in prayer until the ʿAṣr prayer. Afterwards he would leave, his shins and feet swollen, yet he would say, “O my soul, you were created only for worship—O you who constantly command to evil! By Allah, I shall work you so hard that the mattress will have no share of you.”

He once descended into a ravine called Wādī al-Sibāʿ (Valley of the Beasts). In that valley lived an Ethiopian devotee named Ḥumamah. ʿĀmir secluded himself on one side, Ḥumamah on the other; both prayed, each leaving the other alone for forty days and forty nights. Whenever the time for an obligatory prayer came, they performed it and then returned to their supererogatory devotions.

After the forty days had passed, ʿĀmir approached Ḥumamah and said, “Who are you? May Allah have mercy on you.” He replied, “Leave me to my concern.” ʿĀmir said, “I adjure you.” He answered, “I am Ḥumamah.” ʿĀmir said, “If you are the Ḥumamah of whom I have heard, then you are the most devout person on earth. Tell me, then, the most excellent trait.” He replied, “I am but falling short. Were it not that the appointed times of the prayers interrupt my standing and prostration, I would love to spend my entire life bowing, my face spread upon the ground until I meet Him; but the prescribed prayers will not allow me to do so. Now who are you? May Allah have mercy on you.”

He said, “I am ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Qays.” Ḥumamah exclaimed, “If you are the ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Qays of whom I have heard, then you are the most devout of people. Inform me, therefore, of the most excellent trait.” He said, “I too fall short, but there is one thing: I have so magnified the awe of Allah in my breast that I fear nothing besides Him.”

The wild beasts then surrounded them. One of them approached, leapt from behind, and placed its forepaws on ʿĀmir’s shoulders while he was reciting the verse, “That is a Day when all people will be gathered together, and that is a Day that will be witnessed” (Hūd 11:103). When the beast saw ⦗42⦘ that he paid it no heed, it left.

Ḥumamah said, “By Allah, O ʿĀmir, were you not shaken by what you saw?” He answered, “I am too ashamed before Allah to fear anything besides Him.”

Ḥumamah added, “Had Allah not tested us with the belly—so that whenever we eat we must inevitably relieve ourselves—my Lord would never have seen me except bowing and prostrating.” He used to perform eight hundred rakʿahs each day and night, yet he would still say, “I am falling short in worship,” and he would discipline his own soul.