The Imam Nāṣiḥ al-Dīn Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Najm ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Ḥanbalī—may Allah strengthen him—related to us during a reading before him. It was said to him: “The pious shaykha, the pride of women, Shahdah daughter of Aḥmad ibn al-Faraj ibn ʿUmar al-Ibrī, may Allah have mercy on her, transmitted this to you in a session read to her while you listened on Monday, 14 Dhu al-Ḥijjah 572 AH. She, in turn, reported that the accomplished naqīb, Abū al-Fawāris Ṭirād ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Zaynabī—may Allah be pleased with him—had conveyed it to her during a recitation before him in Dhu al-Qaʿdah 490 AH. He was informed by Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān, who said: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṣafwān al-Bardhaʿī informed us, who said: Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd ibn Sufyān ibn Abī al-Dunyā narrated to us, who said:
60 – Isḥāq ibn al-Buhlūl al-Tanūkhī told me; he said: Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā, the grandson of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, related to me, from al-Ḥārith al-Baṣrī, from ʿAmr al-Sarāyā, who said:
“I was travelling alone through the lands of Byzantium. One day, while I was asleep, a burly foreigner came upon me and prodded me with his foot. I awoke, and he said, ‘Arab! Choose: if you wish, spear-thrusts; if you wish, sword-fighting; or if you wish, wrestling.’ I replied, ‘Spears and swords leave no one alive, but wrestling—very well, wrestling.’
He dismounted, and before I could collect myself he had thrown me down and was sitting on my chest. He asked, ‘How would you like me to kill you?’
At that moment I remembered the supplication. I lifted my eyes to the sky and said, ‘I bear witness that every being worshipped beneath Your Throne down to the very depths of the earth is false, save only Your Noble Face. You can see the plight I am in—so grant me relief!’
I lost consciousness, and when I came to, the Byzantine lay dead beside me.”
Isḥāq, the grandson of Dāwūd, added: “I have tried this supplication myself and taught it to others, and they all found it effective—for it is sincerity itself.”