Farwah ibn Mujāhid (1) was reputed to be one of the abdāl (2). Once, while he and a company of men were out on campaign, they were captured and taken to a king who ordered that they be shackled and kept under close guard until morning so he might decide their fate. Farwah said to his companions, “Shall we set out for our homeland?” They replied, “Can you not see the straits we are in?” He touched their fetters with his hand and they fell away. He then went to the prison door, placed his hand upon it, and it opened. They walked out and departed, reaching the Muslim army before it arrived at the town.

Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ Jābir ibn Zayd (3) would not haggle over three things: the hire of a mount to Mecca, a slave he meant to purchase for manumission, and an animal for sacrifice. He used to say, “Do not bargain over anything by which you seek closeness to Allah.” Ibn Sīrīn said, “Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ would readily part with a dinar or a dirham (4).” I add, as the poet has said:

I have seen—believe it true—
that real scruple lies in a single dirham;
If you can reach for it yet turn away,
then know your piety is a Muslim’s piety.

Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ also declared, “To give a single dirham in charity to an orphan and a poor person is dearer to me than performing an additional pilgrimage after the obligatory one.”

Endowed with profound knowledge, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ issued legal rulings in Basra. When the people there asked a Companion such as Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah about a matter, he would say, “How can you ask us when Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ is in your midst? (5)” Jābir once told him, “Son of Zayd, you are among the jurists of Basra. You will be consulted, so issue no verdict except on the basis of an explicit Qurʾān or an established Sunnah; if you do otherwise you will perish and cause others to perish.”

ʿAmr ibn Dīnār said, “I have never seen anyone more knowledgeable in delivering legal opinions than Jābir ibn Zayd (6).” Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah remarked, “I encountered the people of Basra, and their mufti was Jābir ibn Zayd from ʿOmān.” When Qatādah attended his burial he said, “Today the most learned person on earth has been laid to rest.” Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, reporting from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, related that Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ said, “Al-Ḥakam ibn Ayyūb appointed a number of men to serve as judges.”