“Bad company. And if speech were silver, then silence would be of gold.” Narrated by Waki‘ ibn al-Jarrah from Sufyan from his father from Ikrima. On the verse “And you did not throw when you threw, but Allah threw” (Quran 8:17), he commented: “Nothing of it [the arrow] struck except in the eye of one man among them.” On the word zaneem in “Nay, it is but a reminder; so whoever wills may take to his Lord a way” (Quran 68:13), he said: “It denotes the miserly person known for his meanness, just as a sheep is known by its fleece.” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya, 3:337–338) On “Those who harm Allah and His Messenger” (Quran 33:57), he remarked: “They are the makers of images.” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya, 3:338) On “And the hearts reached the throats” (Quran 33:14), he explained: “Had the hearts shifted or departed, the souls would have gone with them. Rather, it refers to extreme fear and terror.” On “You tempted yourselves” (Quran 57:14), he noted: “That is by one’s desires. ‘And you awaited’ refers to repentance. ‘And your vain hopes deceived you’ means procrastination. ‘Until the command of Allah came’ is death. ‘And the deceptive promise deceived you concerning Allah’ refers to Satan.” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya, 3:338) He also said: “Whoever recites Yasin and the Wise Quran will remain joyful on that day until evening.” Salama ibn Shabib (the reading “Salama ibn Shu‘ayb” is a copyist’s error; the verified reading appears in al-Hilya and the biographical works al-Jarh wa-l-Ta‘dil, 2:94, and Tahdhib al-Kamal, 11:284) reported from Ibrahim ibn al-Hakim from his father from Aban: “I was sitting with Ikrima by the sea”—al-Hilya notes “with Ikrima at the house of Ibn Dawud, where Ikrima was lodged near the shore”—“and they spoke of those who drown in the sea. Ikrima said: ‘The fish devour their flesh until nothing remains but the bones, which become a tangled mass. Camels then pass over it, nibble and trample it; later, people settle there, collect those remnants, burn them to ashes, and the wind scatters the ashes over land and sea as Allah wills. When the Trumpet is blown for resurrection, those drowned and the inhabitants of the graves will all emerge together.’” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya, 3:339–340) With the same chain he related: “Allah brought forth two men, one from Paradise and one from Hell. He said to the one from Paradise, ‘My servant, how did you find your resting place?’ He replied, ‘A most blessed resting place.’ Then He addressed the one from Hell, ‘My servant, how did you find your resting place?’ He answered as the narrators report. Thereupon Allah described its scorpions, snakes, wasps, and the various kinds and hues of its torment. He then asked the man of Hell, ‘What would you give Me if I were to spare you from the Fire?’ He said, ‘O my Lord, what do I have to give You?’ Allah said, ‘If you had a mountain of gold, would you give it to Me that I might spare you?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ Allah said, ‘You have lied! In this world I asked you for something far easier: you call upon Me and I respond; you seek My forgiveness and I forgive; you ask of Me and I give—yet you turned away.’” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya, 3:340) Again with this chain he said: “No servant whom Allah brings near to Him on the Day of Resurrection for reckoning departs save with His forgiveness.” In another narration: “Everything has a foundation, and the foundation of Islam is good character.” In another report he said: “A prophet complained to his Lord of hunger and nakedness, so Allah revealed to him: ‘Would you not be pleased that I close for you the door of polytheism?’” (Abu Nu‘aym, al-Hilya, 3:341. The alternative reading “the evil arising from it” is a later interpolation; the original reads “polytheism.”) In yet another chain he stated: “Indeed, there is an angel in the heavens named Isma‘il; if Allah permitted him to open one of his ears, he would glorify the Most Merciful …”