dinars, then give him five hundred dinars. When the Bedouin received them, he sat down and began to weep.

Saʿid asked him, “What is the matter—did you not receive your gift?”

He replied, “Indeed, by Allah, I did. I am weeping for the earth—how will it ever consume someone like you? (1)”

ʿAbd al-Hamid ibn Jaʿfar said:

A man who had undertaken a ḥamāla (surety) for the payment of four diyāt (blood-money settlements) (2) went around asking the people of Madinah for help. They told him, “Go to al-Hasan ibn ʿAli, ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar, Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs, or ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbas.” He headed for the mosque and there found Saʿid entering it.

He asked, “Who is that?”

They answered, “Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs.” He therefore approached him and explained the reason that had brought him. Saʿid left him until he had finished in the mosque and returned home; then he said to the Bedouin, “Bring someone who can carry with you.”

The man said, “May Allah have mercy on you! I asked you for money, not for dates.”

Saʿid replied, “I know—just bring someone to carry with you.” He then gave him forty thousand, and the Bedouin took it and went his way, asking no one else (3).

Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs said to his son, “My son, may Allah (4) disgrace any act of kindness that is not initiated before it is asked for. But if a man comes to you and you can almost see the blood in his face, or he approaches in fear, not knowing whether you will give or refuse—by Allah, even if you were to give him all your wealth, you would still not have repaid him.”

He also said, “I owe three courtesies to anyone who sits with me: when he draws near I greet him warmly; when he sits I make room for him; and when he speaks I give him my full attention.”

He further said, “My son, do not jest with a noble man, for he will resent you; nor with a base man, lest you become cheap in his eyes”—another wording has: “lest he grow bold against you.”

On another occasion he preached: “If Allah grants someone a good provision, let him be the happiest of people because of it. He will only leave it to one of two men: either to a righteous man, who will prosper by what you amassed while you lose out—and nothing is ever too little for the righteous—or to a corrupt man, in which case nothing of it will remain (5).”

Muʿawiyah remarked, “Abu ʿUthman has encompassed the essence of speech.”

Al-Aṣmaʿi narrated, on the authority of Ḥakim ibn Qays, that Saʿid ibn al-ʿAs said, “There are two situations in which I do not feel shy about showing gentleness and taking my time: when addressing an ignorant or foolish person, and when asking for something I need myself.”

A woman known for her devotion once came to him—he was then governor of Kufah. He honored her and treated her graciously, whereupon she said, “May Allah never make you dependent on a vile person; may favor continue to reach you through noble people; and whenever He removes a blessing from any noble, may He make you the means by which it is restored to him.”