Our teacher—the Grand Imām, Shaykh al-Islām, pride of the scholars, and last remnant of the early generations—Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Salafī al-Iṣfahānī, may Allah have mercy on him, narrated to us. This took place in Muḥarram of the year 566 AH in Alexandria. He said:

“Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Naṣr Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Baṭr, the Qur’an-reciter, related to us—this is from what I read to him in Baghdad in Shawwāl of the year 493 AH—who said: ‘Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān al-Sukkarī, the verifier, narrated to us; he said: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṣafwān al-Bardaʿī narrated to us; he said: Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Dunyā al-Qurashī narrated to us.’

1 - Mahdī ibn Ḥafṣ stated that ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak narrated to us from Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ. ⦗44⦘ And ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us: Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Muqrīʾ narrated to us; Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ narrated to us, from Bakr ibn ʿAmr al-Maʿāfirī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hubayrah, from Abū Tamīm al-Jayshānī, from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, who said:

“I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘If you were to rely on Allah with true reliance, He would surely provide for you just as He provides for the birds: they depart in the morning hungry and return in the evening with full bellies.’”