is praised for his generosity; if you were to tell him of your circumstances he might well give you something.”
He replied, “Woe to you! Do not wear out (1) my face.” She persisted until he went and sat with Saʿid. When the other people dispersed, the man remained seated where he was.
Saʿid said to him, “I suppose you are sitting here for a need.” The man kept silent. Saʿid then ordered his servants, “Leave us,” and said to him, “No one is left now but you and me.” Still the man was silent. (2)
Saʿid extinguished the lamp and said, “May Allah have mercy on you—now you cannot see my face, so state your need.”
The man answered, “May Allah set the governor aright! Poverty and hardship have befallen us, and I wished to mention it to you, but I felt too shy.”
Saʿid said, “In the morning go and see my agent, So-and-so.”
When morning came the man went to the agent, who said, “The governor has ordered something for you; bring someone to carry it.”
The man said, “I have no one to carry it.”
He then returned to his wife and reproached her: “You have forced me to expose myself to the governor, and now he has ordered something for me that needs someone to carry it. I imagine he has given me only flour or provisions; had it been money he would have handed it to me directly.”
His wife said, “Whatever he gives you will feed us, so take it.”
The man went back to the agent, who told him, “I informed the governor that you have no one to carry it, and he has sent these three Ethiopian servants with you to carry it.”
The man walked on ahead of them, and when he reached his house he found that each of them was carrying ten thousand dirhams on his head. He said to the servants, “Put down what you have and go.”
They replied, “The governor has set us free for you; whenever he sends a gift with a servant to someone, the servant who carries it is included in the gift.”
Thus the man’s situation improved.
Ibn ʿAsakir relates that Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan sent gifts, money, and a letter to Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs in which he asked for the hand of his daughter Umm ʿUthman, whose mother was Aminah bint Jarir ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Bajali. When the gifts, money, and letter arrived, Saʿid read the letter and then distributed the gifts among those present. He wrote Ziyad a courteous reply that said:
“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Allah the Exalted says: ‘No indeed! Man surely transgresses (6) when he sees himself self-sufficient’ [al-ʿAlaq 6–7]. And peace.”
We have also transmitted that Saʿid proposed to Umm Kulthum bint ʿAli—daughter of Fatimah and former wife of ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab. She accepted and consulted her two brothers, who disliked the match—another narration says it was only al-Husayn who objected while al-Hasan agreed. She prepared her house, set up the bridal couch, fixed a date for the marriage contract, and instructed her son Zayd ibn ʿUmar to marry her to him. Saʿid sent her one hundred thousand—another report says two hundred thousand—dirhams as a dowry, and the people gathered to accompany him. He said, “I do not wish to put the two sons (3) of Fatimah in an awkward position,” so he abandoned the marriage and left all that money to her.
Ibn Maʿin and ʿAbd al-Aʿla ibn Hammad said: A Bedouin asked Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs for something, so he ordered that five hundred be given to him. The servant asked, “Five hundred dirhams or dinars?” Saʿid replied, “I instructed you to give five hundred dirhams, but since your soul has leapt to the thought that it might be…"