Maḥbūb, father of al-Furāt (printed “أبي”)

Al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbbād al-Tirmidhī related to us: al-Furāt ibn Maḥbūb related to us: I heard my father say: Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—was reserved and did not answer legal questions so extensively, until a dream was seen concerning him: as though he were opening the grave of the Prophet—God bless him and his family and grant him peace—gathering his bones and placing them against his chest. Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn was asked about it. He interpreted it to mean that the person of this dream would open to people aspects of the Prophet’s practices—God bless him and grant him peace—and their interpretation in which no one had preceded him. He then became forthcoming in answering questions and produced what you see.