Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Tawba al-Hamadānī

Muḥammad ibn Sahl related to us. He said: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Tawba al-Hamdānī related to me. He said: I heard Layth ibn Naṣr say: When Abū Ḥanīfa was pressed to accept judicial office and refused, he was beaten, brought out of the palace, and paraded around. Ibn Shubruma saw him and said: ‘What harm would it have done this poor man to accept?’ Ibn Abī Laylā said to him: ‘He is a poor man in your eyes and mine, but tomorrow he will be better than you and me.’