Muḥammad ibn Thābit al-Aḥwal

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Bahlūl related to us: This is the book of my grandfather Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād. I read in it: Muḥammad ibn Thābit al-Aḥwal related to me: I heard Usayd ibn Usayd al-Ḥārithī express amazement at Abū Ḥanīfa’s ready answers and analogical reasoning. He said: The barber was cutting his hair, and he said, ‘Pluck out these white hairs.’ The barber said, ‘We do not pluck them, because if you pluck them, they multiply.’ Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—said, ‘If white hairs multiply when plucked, then pluck the black ones so they multiply.’