127 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; he said: ʿUmar ibn Abī Muʿādh narrated to me; he said: Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī al-Kinānī narrated to me; he said: Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥusayn ibn Zayd informed me ⦗103⦘:

“My father used to offer the dawn prayer while it was still dark. One day, after he had finished the morning prayer and was about to mount for his estate at al-Ghābah, Muṣʿab ibn Thābit ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr came to him together with his son ʿAbd Allah ibn Muṣʿab. Muṣʿab said, ‘Listen to some verses from me.’ My father replied, ‘This is no time for that—­is this the hour for poetry?’ Muṣʿab insisted, ‘By your kinship to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, you must hear them.’ So he recited on his own behalf:

O son of the Prophet’s daughter, son of ʿAlī,
You—yes, you—are the refuge from this age.

From an age grown relentless; none escapes its grip,
Not even those whom the two horizons enfold.

Crushing debts have driven us to desperation,
At the hand of an elder from the clan of Thawbān;

Promissory notes recorded against us—eight in all—
Each for two hundred when their sums are counted.

By my father and my mother, should they be exacted,
The lives of the women and children will tighten in distress.

“My father then sent for Ibn Thawbān and asked about the matter. He replied, ‘The elder owes seven hundred and his son one hundred.’ So my father paid the entire amount on their behalf and in addition gave them two hundred dinars.”