37 – Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl and al-Qāsim ibn Hāshim narrated to us; Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah narrated to us; Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated to us from al-Ḥasan, who said:

Haram ibn Ḥayyān and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir set out for the Ḥijāz. While they were riding along, they passed a spot where there was lush, green and dry herbage ⦗37⦘. Their mounts began to reach for that vegetation, and Haram ibn Ḥayyān said, “Son of ʿĀmir, would it please you to be one of these trees, that this mount should crop you, then cast you out as dung so that you became nothing more than a lump of manure?”

He replied, “No, by Allah. What I hope for of Allah’s mercy is dearer to me than that.”

Haram ibn Ḥayyān said, “But as for me—by Allah—I would love to be a tree among these trees, eaten by this she-camel, then expelled as dung and made into a heap of manure, so that I would never have to endure the reckoning on the Day of Resurrection, whether its end be Paradise or Hellfire. Woe to you, son of ʿĀmir! I fear the Greatest Calamity.”

Al-Ḥasan commented, “By Allah, he was the better versed of the two and the one who knew Allah, Mighty and Majestic, more intimately.”