—and I was one of them,” explains ʿAmr. “Had I ever been put to the least test over the matter, I would have mounted my camel and fled the country ⦗1⦘.
Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ said, “I considered the righteous deeds: prayer taxes the body but not one’s wealth, and fasting is the same; pilgrimage, however, strains both wealth and body, so I judged the ḥajj to be superior to the others.”
On one occasion he took a handful of earth from a wall; when morning came he put it back. The wall belonged to some people who said, “If everyone who passed by took a handful, nothing of it would remain.”
Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ also said, “When you come to the mosque on Friday, stand at the door and say: ‘O Allah, make me today the most devoted of those who turn toward You, the nearest of those who seek closeness to You, and the most successful of those who call upon You and yearn for You.’”
Siyār reported: Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us from Ḥajjāj ibn Abī ʿUyainah. He said: “Jābir ibn Zayd used to visit us in our prayer-place. One day he came wearing two worn-out sandals and said, ‘Sixty years of my life have passed; these two sandals are dearer to me than all that time—save whatever good I have sent on ahead ⦗2⦘.’”
Ṣāliḥ al-Dahhān said: “Whenever a sittūq fell into Jābir ibn Zayd’s hands he would break it and throw it away lest any Muslim be deceived by it.” A sittūq is a debased or counterfeit dirham, some say adulterated coinage.
Imām Aḥmad related: Abū ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿAmmī narrated to us, saying: Mālik ibn Dīnār said, “Jābir ibn Zayd entered while I was copying the Qur’an. I asked him, ‘What do you think of this craft of mine, Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ?’ He answered, ‘How excellent is your craft! You are transferring the Book of Allah from sheet to sheet, verse to verse, word to word. This is lawful; there is no harm in it ⦗3⦘.’”
Mālik ibn Dīnār also said: “I asked him about Allah’s words, ‘Then We would have made you taste double in life and double after death’ (al-Isrā’ 17:75). He explained, ‘Double the punishment of this world and double the punishment of the Hereafter ⦗4⦘—“then you would not find for yourself against Us any helper” (al-Isrā’ 17:75).’”
Sufyān narrated: Abū ʿUmayr al-Ḥārith ibn ʿUmayr told me that when Jābir ibn Zayd lay dying they asked him, “What do you long for, what do you desire?” He replied, “A look at al-Ḥasan.” In another report from Thābit: when Jābir’s illness became severe they said, “What do you desire?” He answered, “A look at al-Ḥasan.” Thābit added, “I went to al-Ḥasan and informed him, so he mounted and came. When he entered he said to the household, ‘Seat me.’ They seated him, and he kept repeating, ‘I seek refuge in Allah from the Fire and from an evil reckoning ⦗5⦘.’”
Ḥammād ibn Zayd said: Ḥajjāj ibn Abī ʿUyainah narrated to us: “I heard Hind bint al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah—one of the most strikingly beautiful women— and when Jābir ibn Zayd was mentioned in her presence and it was said, ‘He was an Ibāḍī,’ she replied, ‘Jābir ibn …’”