95 – The judge Abū al-Qāsim informed us; Abū ʿAlī narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; ʿUbayd ibn Yūnus ibn Bukayr related to me; Muṣʿab ibn Sallām told us; and Abū Ḥāritha, the overseer of the public treasury, narrated to me:

Abū Jaʿfar appointed al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Bilāl al-Ghanawī over the districts of Bār and Samāʾ. When al-Mufaḍḍal had completed his assignment, he returned and presented himself to the caliph. Abū Jaʿfar said, “I made you a partner in my trust, yet you have betrayed me. You and I are like the protector of Umm ʿĀmir.”

Al-Mufaḍḍal replied, “Commander of the Faithful, who is this protector of Umm ʿĀmir? ⦗84⦘”

The caliph told him the story. Al-Mufaḍḍal then said, “By Allah, Commander of the Faithful, I have not betrayed you of a single dinar or dirham. I took nothing except this one mithqāl; I thought I would invest it, then return to my family with exactly what I had when I left your presence.”

The caliph answered, “Bring it here; we have a greater right to it than you.”