Some have said: Ibn ʿAbbās left as an inheritance a few words that are worth more than the finest jet-black steeds. He declared:
“Do not speak about what does not concern you until you find the proper occasion for it. Do not dispute with a fool or with a forbearing man, for the forbearing man will prevail over you while the fool will hold you in contempt. Mention not your brother in his absence except with what you would love him to say about you in your absence. And act as one who knows that beneficence will be rewarded and wrongdoing will be taken to task.”
A man who was present exclaimed, “Son of ʿAbbās, this is better than ten thousand!” Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “A single one of those words is better than ten thousand.”
Ibn ʿAbbās also said: “A kindness is perfected by three things: hastening to perform it, regarding it as small, and concealing it—that is, you hasten to give the gift, you deem it insignificant in your own eyes, and you hide it from the people so as not to display it. [For displaying it opens the door to ostentation, breaks the heart of the recipient, and embarrasses him before others.] (1)”
He further said: “The person dearest to me is the companion sitting with me; if I could keep even a fly from landing on his face, I would do so.”
And he said as well: “No one can recompense a man who comes to me seeking a need and finds me able to fulfill it except Allah—exalted is He—nor a man who greets me first with the salām, or makes room for me in a gathering, or rises for me from his seat, or a man who gives me a drink of water when I am thirsty, or one who guards my reputation in my absence. The reports of such noble traits transmitted from him are very numerous; what we have cited merely points to what we have left uncited.”
Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī counted him, among the nobles, among those who were blind, and some of the hadiths related from him indicate the same.
It was said: One of his eyes was afflicted and his body wasted away; when the second eye was afflicted, his flesh returned. Asked about this, he replied, “What you saw of me when the first eye went was out of pity for the other; once they both were gone, my heart found peace.” (2)
Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī reported: “ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd narrated to us; Sharik narrated to us, from Simāk, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that water collected in his eyes. It was said to him, ‘We can drain the water, on condition that you refrain from the prayer for seven days.’ He replied, ‘No! Whoever abandons the prayer while able to perform it will meet Allah while He is angry with him.’
In another report it was said to him, ‘We will remove this water provided that for five days you pray only while seated on a plank,’—in another version, ‘while lying on your back.’ He answered, ‘No, by Allah, not even a single rakʿah (unit of prayer) will I abandon. Whoever deliberately leaves one prayer will meet Allah while He is angry with him.’”
Al-Madāʾinī composed the following verses for Ibn ʿAbbās when he lost his sight:
“If Allah should take from my eyes their light,
He has left in my tongue and hearing a light in their stead.
My heart is keen and my mind free of defect,
And in my mouth is a sword—an ancient, storied blade.” (3)