469 — Al-Firyābī informed us, saying: Abū Uthmān Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Muqaddamī narrated to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Harb narrated to us, saying: Ubayd Allāh ibn Shumayt narrated to us, from Uthmān al-Battī, who said: I entered upon Ibn Sīrīn, and he asked me, “What are the people saying about divine decree?” I do not recall what I said in reply. He then picked up something from the ground and said, “The matter does not go beyond what I am about to tell you by even so much as this: when Allah Most High intends good for a servant, He grants him success in doing what He loves, obeying Him, and pursuing that which earns His pleasure. If He intends otherwise for someone, He establishes the proof against him and then punishes him without wronging him.”