441 — Abū Zayd related to me, saying: Abū Ghassān Muhammad ibn Yahyā ibn Ali related to me, saying: Ismāīl ibn al-Hasan ibn Zayd informed me, saying:

“My father used to perform the Fajr prayer while it was still dark. One day, Musab ibn Thābit ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr and his son, Abd Allah ibn Musab, came to him as he was returning from the dawn prayer and preparing to ride to his estate at al-Ghāba. Musab said, ‘Listen to some poetry from me.’

“He replied, ‘This is no time for that! Is this an hour for poetry?’

“Musab said, ‘I beseech you by your kinship with the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—to hear it.’ He then recited to him these verses on his own behalf:

[al-Madīd meter]

“O descendant of the Prophet’s daughter and of Ali,
You—you are the protector against this age;

Against an age that presses relentlessly—none escapes it
Whom the horizons of East and West fail to shelter;

Against grievous debts that have driven us hard,
Held by an elder from Banū Thawbān;

Recorded against us in written deeds,
Amounting, when the hundreds are counted, to eight.

May my father and mother be your ransom! If they are exacted,
The women and children will be left in straitened circumstances.”

He said: “My father then sent for Ibn Thawbān and questioned him. He replied, ‘The elder owes me seven hundred, and his son owes me one hundred.’ My father paid both their debts and gave them a further two hundred dinars.”