he admitted me to the vizier. The vizier turned to me, asking my name, occupation, and place of residence, and I informed him of all this.
The vizier then said, “I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, commanding me to give you four hundred dinars. When I awoke I did not know whom to ask about you, and to this moment I have dispatched several messengers in search of you. May Allah reward you for coming to me yourself.”
He thereupon ordered that one thousand dinars be brought and said, “Here are four hundred in obedience to the Messenger of Allah, and six hundred as a gift from me.”
The man replied, “By Allah, I will accept nothing beyond what the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed, for I hope that goodness and blessing lie in it.” He therefore took only the four hundred dinars.
The vizier said, “This is genuine truthfulness and certainty.” The man left, presented the money to his creditors, and they said, “We will give you three years’ respite; use this gold to reopen your shop and continue earning your livelihood.” He refused, however, to give them less than one-third of what he owed, so he paid them two hundred dinars and reopened the shop with the remaining two hundred. Before a full year had passed he had earned one thousand dinars (1).
ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, the vizier, has many other worthy tales. He died this year at the age of ninety; some say it was the year before, and Allah knows best.
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl (2) ibn Isḥāq ibn Baḥr, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Fārisī, the Shafiʿi jurist:
He was trustworthy, precise, and outstanding. He heard hadith from Abū Zurʿa of Damascus and others; Dāraqutnī and others transmitted from him, and the last to relate from him was Abū ʿUmar ibn Mahdī. He died in Shawwāl of this year.
Hārūn ibn Muḥammad (3) ibn Hārūn ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā ibn ʿAmr ibn Jābir ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir ibn ʿĀmir ibn Asīd ibn Taym ibn Ṣubḥ ibn Dhuhl ibn Mālik [ibn Bakr] (4) ibn Saʿd ibn Ḍabbah, Abū Jaʿfar—the father of the judge Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Hārūn (5):
His forefathers were the ancient kings of ʿUmān. Yazīd ibn Jābir lived to see Islam, embraced it, and his Islam was sound. Hārūn was the first of his family to move from ʿUmān; he settled in Baghdad (6), transmitted hadith there, and his son narrated from him.
He was virtuous and thoroughly versed in every branch of learning. His house served as a meeting place for scholars of all disciplines, upon whom he spent freely. He enjoyed high standing and great respect in Baghdad. Dāraqutnī praised him lavishly, saying that he excelled in grammar, language, poetry, the meanings of the Qur’an, and kalām.