Imam Ahmad said: “Abu Tumayla narrated to us from Ibn Ruwad (in some copies miswritten as ‘from Ibn Abi Dawud,’ a scribal error confirmed by early hadith bibliographers; see the biography of Abu Tumayla, Yahya ibn Wadiḥ, in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 32/22, and note that Ibn Abi Ruwad is ‘Abd al-‘Azīz). He said: ‘I saw Tawūs and some of his companions. Whenever they performed the ʿAṣr prayer, they would face the qibla without speaking to anyone, and they would earnestly supplicate to Allah in du‘ā.’ (Reported in Abū Nu‘aym’s al-Ḥilya 4/13 and al-Mizzī’s Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 13/370.) He [Imam Ahmad] also said: ‘Whoever neither withholds nor consumes the property of an orphan will be spared the ordeal of severe trials.’ This was narrated from him by Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī. (Abū Nu‘aym, al-Ḥilya 4/13; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 13/370.) Al-Ṭabarānī likewise narrated it from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Mundhir from Mūsā ibn Ismā‘īl from Abū Dāwūd… He [Tawūs] said to his son: “My son, keep the company of the wise—one is counted among them even if one is not of them—and do not befriend the ignorant, lest you be counted among them even if you are not. And know that everything has an ultimate goal, and the highest goal for a person is sound intellect.” A man once asked him about a legal matter, and he reproached him. The man said: “O Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, I am your brother.” He replied: “My brother apart from all the people?” In another report, a man from the Khārijites asked him a question and was rebuked. He said: “I am your brother.” Tawūs replied: “Are you equal to all the Muslims?” ‘Affān narrated from Ḥammād ibn Zayd from Ayyūb: “A man asked Tawūs about something, and he reproached him. The man retorted: ‘Do you intend to put a rope around my neck and have me paraded?’” He [Tawūs] saw a poor man who suffered from cataracts and wore filthy clothes. He said to him: “Consider that poverty comes from Allah; how then can you complain about water?” (Abū Nu‘aym, al-Ḥilya 4/14.) Al-Ṭabarānī also narrated: “Admitting to a single act of wrongdoing is better than persistently engaging in it.” (Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 13/369.) ‘Abd al-Razzāq reported from Dāwūd ibn Ibrāhīm that a lion held up pilgrims one night on the way to Hajj, causing them to jostle one another in fear. When dawn came and the lion departed, the pilgrims scattered in every direction and collapsed in exhaustion. Tawūs, however, stood and began to pray. A man—according to another version, his son—asked him, “Will you not rest, since you have kept vigil all night?” He answered: “Who ever sleeps at the time of suḥūr (pre-dawn meal)?” Another version has him say: “I never imagined anyone would sleep at suḥūr.” (Ibn Abī ‘Āṣim, al-Zuhd, p. 377; Abū Nu‘aym, al-Ḥilya 4/14; al-Bayhaqī, Shu‘ab al-Īmān 3/166, no. 3231.) Al-Ṭabarānī, via ‘Abd al-Razzāq, from Ibn Jurayj (in some copies miswritten as “Abi Jurayj,” a scribal error) and from Ibn ‘Uyayna, reported: “Ibn Tawūs said: I asked my father, ‘What is the best supplication to make for the deceased?’ He replied: ‘Seeking Allah’s forgiveness for them.’” (Abd al-Razzāq, al-Musannaf 3/493, no. 6442; Abū Nu‘aym, al-Ḥilya 4/14; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 13/370.) Al-Ṭabarānī also said: “‘Abd al-Razzāq narrated to us: I heard al-Numān ibn al-Zubayr al-San‘ānī relate that Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf—or Ayyūb ibn Yaḥyā—sent Tawūs seven hundred dīnārs and told his messenger: ‘If he accepts them from you, the governor will clothe you and treat you well.’ The messenger presented them to Tawūs, saying: ‘O Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, the governor has sent you a stipend.’ Tawūs replied: ‘I have no need of it.’ The messenger pressed him repeatedly, but Tawūs refused. When the messenger left his guard down, he tossed the coins into a niche in the house, then returned to the governor, claiming Tawūs had accepted them. The governor waited some time, then received news—true or false—that displeased him about Tawūs, and commanded: ‘Send to him and have him return our money.’ The messenger went back and said: ‘The money your governor sent you must be returned to us.’ Tawūs replied: ‘I never took any of it.’ The messenger returned and reported this; the governor recognized his honesty and ordered the messenger to bring back the man who had handed over the coins. When the man arrived, Tawūs asked him: ‘The money you brought me, O Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān?’ He answered: ‘Did I take anything from you?’ ‘No,’ said Tawūs. He then went to the place where he had hidden the coins, found them undisturbed and covered with a spider’s web, took them, and returned them to the governor.”}