Ayyūb ibn Jābir al-Ḥanafī

Related to us: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAmrūs al-Hamadhānī; he said: related to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Yazīd al-Baḥrānī; he said: related to us: my father; he said: I heard: Ayyūb ibn Jābir al-Ḥanafī saying: Ghaylān’s associate came to Kufa to debate Abū Ḥanīfa about destiny. The people of Kufa debated him, and he defeated them, apart from Abū Ḥanīfa. Abū Ḥanīfa debated him in the house of ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth, where most of the disputants among the students of jurisprudence and speculative theology assembled. Ghaylān’s associate asked Abū Ḥanīfa: “Will you ask, or shall I?” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “Ask whatever occurs to you. When your questions are exhausted, I shall ask you two or three questions, no more.” He asked: “Tell me what God willed for Pharaoh.” He said: “He willed unbelief for him, and did not will for him anything that would invalidate His knowledge.” He asked: “What did Iblīs will for Pharaoh?” He said: “He willed unbelief for him.” He asked: “What did Pharaoh will for himself?” He said: “He willed unbelief for himself.” He asked: “What did Moses will for Pharaoh?” He said: “He willed faith for him.” He said: “Abū Ḥanīfa, did not God’s will, Iblīs’s will and Pharaoh’s will agree upon unbelief, while Moses’s will opposed God’s will?” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “God, mighty and majestic, willed for Moses to will faith for him; He willed for Iblīs to will unbelief for Pharaoh; and He willed for Pharaoh to will unbelief for himself. All willed by His will.” Abū Ḥanīfa then said: “I ask you: do you acknowledge God’s Book, mighty and majestic?” He said: “Yes, I acknowledge it.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “Consider God Most High’s words in His Book: ‘We have made it an Arabic Qurʾān, so that you may understand; and it is with Us in the Mother of the Book, exalted and wise’ [al-Zukhruf 3–4]. Do you acknowledge that the Qurʾān God, mighty and majestic, sent down to His Prophet Muḥammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, is in the Preserved Tablet?” He said: “Yes, I acknowledge it.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “Is ‘May the hands of Abū Lahab perish’ not in it?” He said: “Yes.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “Could Abū Lahab have believed in God and His Prophet, been a righteous man, died in that state and entered Paradise, thereby invalidating this sura in the Mother of the Book?” Ghaylān’s associate lowered his head in thought. Abū Ḥanīfa said: “If you say he could, you have failed to know your Lord and declared Him false. If you say no, you have abandoned and contradicted your own position.” He said: “You are right. Give me the other question.” Abū Ḥanīfa asked: “Are you a believer?” He said: “Yes.” He asked: “How do you know you are a believer, when many communities make the same claim you make and are like you in making it?” He said: “I know I am a believer because the Muslims have told me so, and I see them holding that view.” He said: “They are like you in this and are parties to the dispute; a party’s testimony is not accepted.” Ghaylān’s associate said: “My parents and household told me.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “They too are parties in this, because they hold your position; their testimony is not accepted.” Ghaylān’s associate said: “God’s Book, mighty and majestic, has informed and guided me.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “How do you know this is God’s Book? Did you see Gabriel when he brought revelation to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace? Or did you see the Prophet and learn from him?” Ghaylān’s associate said: “I came to know through you, when God gave me insight and inspired me.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “You are right. Did God give the unbeliever insight and inspire him in the same way He gave you insight and inspired you?” Ghaylān’s associate lowered his head for a while, then raised it and said: “Abū Ḥanīfa, may God reward you well on behalf of Islam! How great is your benefit!”

The printed “through you” (bika) is retained, without conjecturally changing it to “that”. The spelling Abū Janīfa in one sentence denotes the same speaker and is rendered consistently.