—up to our own time. (1) He also authored Kitāb al-ʿIlal (2), arranged according to the chapters of fiqh, in addition to other beneficial works.
He was outstanding in worship, asceticism, scrupulous piety, prodigious memorization, and the many well-known miracles granted to him—may Allah have mercy on him and honor his resting place.
On one occasion he led the prayer; when he gave the salām, a man who had prayed behind him said, “You prolonged the prayer for us—I was able to glorify Allah in my prostration seventy times.” ʿAbd al-Raḥmān replied, “By Allah, I myself glorified Him only three times.”
The rampart of one of the frontier towns (3) collapsed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim addressed the people, urging them to rebuild it, and said, “Whoever undertakes its reconstruction, I guarantee for him Paradise with Allah.” A merchant rose and said, “Write that guarantee in your own hand, and here are a thousand dinars toward the work.” He wrote him a note to that effect, and the wall was rebuilt. Not long afterward the man died. When the people attended his funeral, the note flew out of his shroud—it was the very paper Ibn Abī Ḥātim had written for him—then it returned, and on its back was written: “We have ratified this guarantee for you; do not ask for its like again.”
Then came the year 328 AH. Ibn al-Jawzī states in al-Muntaẓam: “At the dawn of Muḥarram an intense redness appeared in the sky toward the north and west, within which were numerous, massive white columns.” (4)
That year news arrived that Rukn al-Dawla Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Būya the Daylamite had reached Wāsiṭ. The caliph and Būjkum set out to fight him, but he withdrew to Ahwāz (5), and they returned to Baghdad.
During the same year Rukn al-Dawla ibn Būya seized the city of Isfahān, wresting it from Washmkīr, brother of Mardāwīj, because the latter’s army was small at the time.
In Shaʿbān the Tigris rose dramatically, flooding the western bank, toppling many houses. A breach opened near Anbār, inundating numerous villages, and countless livestock and wild animals perished in the countryside.
That year Būjkum married Sāra, daughter of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Buraydī—Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yaʿqūb—who was vizier at the time.