those present with him about the man who had forged the letter. One of them said, “His hand should be cut off.” Another said, “Let his thumb be severed.” A third proposed, “He ought to be given a harsh beating.”
The vizier replied, “Shall I show you something better than that?” He took the letter and wrote on it: “Yes, this is my own handwriting, and the bearer is one of my closest companions. Do not withhold from him any favour that lies within your power; shower him with every kindness you can.” When the letter returned, the deputy of Egypt treated that man generously (1) and bestowed upon him something like twenty-thousand dinars (2).
On another day Ibn al-Furāt summoned one of the secretaries and said to him, “Woe to you! My intention toward you is ill; at any moment I feel inclined to arrest you and confiscate your property. A few nights ago I dreamed that I had ordered your arrest. You kept eluding me, so I commanded that you be fought. Whenever they struck at you with arrows or any other weapon, you warded off the blows with a loaf of bread in your hand so that nothing reached you. Tell me—what is the story of that loaf?”
He answered, “O Vizier, ever since I was a child my mother used to place a loaf of bread beneath my pillow each night, and in the morning she would give it away in charity on my behalf. She kept at this until she died, and I have continued the practice since then: every night I put a loaf under my pillow, and in the morning I give it in charity.”
The vizier marvelled at this and said, “By Allah, no harm shall ever reach you from me. My attitude toward you has improved and I have come to love you (3).”
Ibn Khallikān devoted a lengthy entry to him and related some of what we have just reported (4).
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Abū Bakr al-Azdi, al-Wāsiṭī, known as al-Baghandī (5), heard hadith from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr, Ibn Abī Shaybah, Shaybān ibn Farrūkh, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, and a host of scholars from Syria, Egypt, Kūfa, Baṣra, and Baghdad.
He travelled to distant regions, devoted himself to this discipline, and became excessively absorbed in it. It was said that he might sometimes recite a number of hadith with their chains of transmission while in prayer (6) without being aware of it, and the people would say “Subḥān Allāh” to alert him until he remembered that he was still praying. He used to say, “I can answer three hundred thousand questions related to hadith (7).”