محمد بن إبراهيم المروزي

Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Marwazī related to us. He said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me. He said: Rāfiʿ ibn Ashras related to us. He said: A question arose for al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid, and he found no one in Merv who could resolve it for him. He wrote to towns throughout Khurasan, but no one knew it. He therefore set out for Iraq to resolve that question. Reaching Kufa, he visited Sufyān al-Thawrī, with whom he had companionship and friendship, and asked him. Sufyān thought for a long while, then said: “I do not know, Ḥusayn.” He replied: “You say, I do not know, when you are an imam?” He said: “Ḥusayn! It is a mark of a man’s intelligence to say of something he does not know: I do not know. What I do not know, Ḥusayn, is greater than what I know.” He visited him for days, asking about the question. Each time he said: “I do not know,” until he gave up hope of him. Then he visited Abū Ḥanīfa and asked him. He answered without reflection, as though the answer had been in his sleeve, may God have mercy on him. He asked him for the evidence, and he gave him clear proofs until al-Ḥusayn understood. He returned to Sufyān and said nothing about the question. Sufyān asked: “Ḥusayn, what became of the question?” He replied: “I have received an answer.” He asked: “Whom did you ask?” He replied: “Abū Ḥanīfa.” He asked: “What answer did he give?” He told him. He asked: “Did you ask him for the evidence?” He replied: “Yes.” He asked: “What evidence did he give?” He mentioned it. Sufyān said: “Ḥusayn! The answer is as he gave it, and the evidence is as he presented it.” He replied: “Until now you have been telling me, I do not know, and now you say what you say!” He replied: “Ḥusayn, there are many like us in Abū Ḥanīfa’s waistband, may God have mercy on them all.”