أبو عبد الله (report 423; identity unresolved)

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad informed us: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-ʿAlawī related to us: Muḥammad ibn Tasnīm related to us, from Mūsā ibn al-Qāsim al-Bajalī, from Zakariyyā al-Muʾmin, from Muʿāwiya ibn ʿAmmār, who said: A woman died, leaving instructions that a third of her estate be given in charity on her behalf, that pilgrimage be performed on her behalf, and that a slave be freed on her behalf. The money was insufficient for all of this. I asked Abū Ḥanīfa and Sufyān al-Thawrī—may God have mercy on them both. Each said, ‘Find a man who has performed pilgrimage but has been stranded, so that he may be supported, and a man working to purchase his freedom who still owes something, so that he may be freed; give the remainder in charity.’ I liked this opinion and told the woman’s family, ‘I have asked on your behalf. Would you like me to ask someone more trustworthy than these men?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh about it. He said, ‘Begin with pilgrimage, for pilgrimage is obligatory; put what remains toward voluntary acts.’ I went to Abū Ḥanīfa—may God be pleased with him—and said, ‘I asked so-and-so, and he said what I have mentioned.’ He said, ‘By God, this is the truth.’ He adopted it and put the question to his companions. I stayed behind for a need of mine after his departure and heard them discussing it. One of them gave Abū Ḥanīfa’s first opinion. Someone who had heard this declared him mistaken, saying, ‘I heard this from Abū Ḥanīfa twenty years ago.’

The final claim of ‘twenty years ago’ is retained as printed rather than reconciled with the preceding sequence.