Al-Azraq the traditionist once claimed to have related—through so-and-so, from Shimr and ʿAwf, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd—
(1)
“No one breaks a promise save a faithless woman, while every faithless man shall be enchained in Hell.”
When this report reached Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf al-Azraq he exclaimed, “The enemy of Allah has lied about me, about the Successors, and about the Companions of Muḥammad—peace and blessings be upon him.”
Sulaim ibn Manṣūr ibn ʿAmmār related:
“I once saw Abū Nuwās in my father’s gathering, weeping with intense sobs. I said, ‘I trust that Allah will not punish you after such tears.’ He then recited:
‘I did not weep in Manṣūr’s assembly
out of yearning for Paradise and its maidens;
Nor from fear of the grave and its terrors,
nor of the trumpet-blast that shall be blown;
Nor from dread of the Fire and its shackles,
nor of abandonment or oppression.
My tears were only for a fawn-eyed youth who wept—
I would ransom him with my life from every harm.’
(2)
He added, ‘I wept solely because of the tears of that beardless lad beside your father.’ The boy was of handsome appearance; whenever he heard an admonition he would weep out of fear of Allah—exalted is He.
Abū Nuwās also said:
“One day a certain weaver kept insisting that I be his guest. He persisted until I agreed, so we went to his house. It was a respectable dwelling; he had taken great pains with the food and gathered a company of fellow weavers. We ate and drank.
“Then he said, ‘My master, I long for you to compose some verses about my slave-girl’—for he was smitten with her. I replied, ‘Show her to me so that I may compose in keeping with her form and beauty.’ He unveiled her—and behold, she was the ugliest, most repulsive creature Allah ever created: black-skinned, grey-haired, didāniyya (scabrous), with saliva running down her chest. (3)
“I asked her owner, ‘What is her name?’ He answered, ‘Tasnīm.’ So I composed:
‘Love for Tasnīm keeps me sleepless at night—
a maiden in beauty like an owl!
Her breath is as rank as rotten brine,
or a bundle of garlic stalks.
She broke wind out of love for me—
a blast that startled the Emperor of Rome!’”