1372 — Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd informed us. He said: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn informed us. He said: ⦗815⦘ Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr narrated to us. He said: Hudbah narrated to us. He said: Ḥazm ibn Abī Ḥazm al-Quṭaʿī narrated to us. He said: ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal narrated to us. He said:

“I was sitting with Qatādah when he mentioned ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd disparagingly. I said, ‘Abū al-Khaṭṭāb, do I not see the scholars speaking ill of one another?’ He replied, ‘Aḥwal, do you not know that when a man introduces an innovation, it must be mentioned so that people may recognize it?’

“I left Qatādah feeling distressed by what he had said about ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd, in view of the ascetic devotion and upright conduct I had seen in ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd. Then, at midday, I laid down my head and saw ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd in a dream, with a muṣḥaf in his lap, scratching out a verse from the Book of Allah. I said, ‘Glory be to Allah! Are you scratching out a verse from the Book of Allah?’ He said, ‘I shall restore it.’ So I left him until he had scratched it out. Then I said to him, ‘Restore it.’ He replied, ‘I am unable to.’”