1385 – I heard 43536 Abu Ahmad Ubayd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Fara'idi—the righteous, trustworthy, reliable shaykh—say on more than one occasion: “There was a blind man devoted to the Quran who used to recite to me.” Abu Ahmad spoke highly of him. After al-Ja'd—may Allah curse him—had died, the man said to me, “I have seen a dream.” I asked, “What did you see?” He said:
“I saw myself in a mosque, where a group of people were preparing to pray. The imam had risen to begin the prayer when a man entered from outside and whispered something to him. The imam turned and said, ‘Ja'd has died. May Allah have no mercy on Ja'd, fill his grave with Fire, and grant the Muslims relief from him.’”
Shaykh Abu Ahmad said: “I asked him, ‘Do you know the man concerning whom you saw this dream?’ He replied, ‘No, by Allah, I do not know him, nor had I heard his name except in the dream.’ I said, ‘He was one of the Mu'tazilite theologians, and he died around this time.’”
1386 – Shaykh Abu al-Qasim—may Allah have mercy on him—said, and I heard him more than once ⦗822⦘ speak of Abu Hamid al-Marwarudhi, praising his deeds, elaborating upon his merit, and commending his handsome appearance and bearing. He said:
“I saw him in a dream, seated on the roof of a mosque, surrounded by a group of people in filthy clothes, who resembled the servants of cloth merchants. Before him was a dish bearing a stick, which he was chewing with his teeth. The skin of his face had turned black, after its former beauty and freshness during his lifetime. When I looked at him, he resented my gaze, as though he imagined that I was about to assail him because of what I knew of the innovations he used to propagate. He said, ‘We do not wrong Allah.’ I replied, ‘Unquestionably, the curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers.’ [Hud: 18]
“Those around him then intended to harm me, so I recited: ‘Allah—there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of all.’ [al-Baqarah: 255] I began gesturing with my finger—as was his manner when awake—and then I awoke.”