Zayd ibn ʿAlī

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Kūfī related to us. He said: ʿUbayd ibn Ḥamdūn related to us. He said: al-Ḥasan ibn Ṭarīf ibn Nāṣiḥ related to us. He said: My father related to me, from Muḥammad ibn Zayd ibn ʿAlī: Abū Ḥanīfa sent money to Zayd ibn ʿAlī and said: “Use this to help you in your war and the situation you are in, and use it to help the needy among your companions.”

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Kūfī related to us: al-Ḥasan ibn al-Qāsim informed me: ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm related to us: ʿAmr—meaning ʿAbd al-Ghaffār—related to us: al-Fuḍayl ibn al-Zubayr related to us: I was Zayd’s messenger to Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him. I went to him, and he nearly fainted from fear. I delivered Zayd’s message, and he remained silent for a long time. Then he said, ‘Woe to you, what do you yourself say?’ I said, ‘I say that supporting him and fighting alongside him is right.’ He said, ‘Which jurists are coming to him in this matter?’ I said, ‘Salama ibn Kuhayl, Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, Hārūn ibn Saʿd, Hāshim ibn al-Barīd, Abū Hāshim al-Rummānī, al-Ḥajjāj ibn Dīnār, and many others.’ He recognized them and said, ‘Go today, and meet me tomorrow at such-and-such an hour. Do not speak a word to me: just come and sit to one side. I will get up with you; when I get up, follow me.’ I came the next day. When he saw me, he got up, and I followed him. He said, ‘Convey my greetings to him and tell him: As for going out with you, I do not have the strength’—he mentioned an illness he had—‘but I have assistance and resources for you to fight your enemy. You and your companions should use them for mounts and weapons.’ Then he sent money to Zayd ibn ʿAlī. Zayd accepted it and used it to strengthen his companions.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad informed us: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Qutayba related to us: I found in Abū Ghassān’s book: He said: Ḥammād ibn Yaʿlā related to me, from Bashshār ibn Yasār: Zayd ibn ʿAlī sent to Abū Ḥanīfa inviting him to support him. He sent back word of an illness and his inability to do so, and sent him money that he used for support.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad informed us: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Ḥijāzī related to us: My father related to us: al-Ṣabbāḥ ibn Yaḥyā al-Muzanī related to us: Abū Ḥanīfa—may God be pleased with him—sent to Zayd ibn ʿAlī, excusing himself for not joining him. He sent assistance, saying, ‘Use this to strengthen your companions.’

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad related to us: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Ḥijāzī related to us: My father related to us: My father ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sālim related to us, from Muḥammad ibn Sālim ibn Aflaḥ, who said: When Zayd ibn ʿAlī’s undertaking became established, he sent him to Kufa’s leading men to invite them to support him. Abū Ḥanīfa sent him word of an illness and his inability to go out, and sent money that he used for support.

The repeated ‘my father’ in the chain and the unnamed messenger in the narrative follow the supplied Arabic.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad related to us: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hishām related to us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-ʿAṭṭār related to us: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Ẓuhayr related to me, from his father, from Abū Ḥanīfa—may God be pleased with him—who said: A man said to Zayd ibn ʿAlī, ‘Did God decree sins?’ He said, ‘Was He then disobeyed by compulsion?’ Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—said, ‘I have never seen a quicker answer.’

The terse rhetorical question retains its ambiguity rather than adding a developed theological explanation.