الفضيل بن عياض

Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Balkhī related to us. He said: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbda al-Ḍabbī related to us. He said: Al-Fuḍayl sometimes spoke unkindly of Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, and his companions, may God have mercy on them. Yet when a legal question arose for him, he asked them, and when he was asked a legal question, he directed people to them.

Abū Zayd ʿImrān ibn Firīnām related to us. He said: al-Fatḥ ibn Ḥusayn related to us. He said: I heard al-Qāsim ibn Isḥāq say: I heard Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath say: When a legal question arose in Mecca and al-Fuḍayl was asked about it, he directed people to Abū Zayd, saying: “Go and ask Abū Zayd.” One day I said to him: “May God have mercy on you! When a question concerning religion arises for you, you say: ‘Go and ask Abū Zayd.’” He said: “My son”—or “Bukhārī”—“these are people who have investigated this matter and pursued it. This matter cannot be set right without them.”

Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Yūsuf related to us. He said: ʿAlī ibn Muḥallab, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṣīr, related to us. He said: I heard Ṣafar ibn Ibrāhīm say: I was with al-Fuḍayl in Mecca when a letter reached me from Bukhara containing a question: a frog had fallen into thickened syrup and died. I asked al-Fuḍayl about it, and he said: “I do not know.” I said: “Whom should I ask?” He said: “[Ask] Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym, and tell me what he says.” I asked him, and he said: “I do not know.” I said to him: “Whom should I ask?” He said: “Ask Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna.” I went to him and found him praying, so I waited until he finished and asked him. He said: “I do not know.” A man came up to me and called me over. He said: “What are you asking about?” I said: “A question [arose], and I asked al-Fuḍayl. He did not know and directed me to Yaḥyā. I asked him, but he did not know. I also asked Ibn ʿUyayna, but he did not know.” He said to me: “Go to Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, the man praying by the waterspout.” I went [to him] and found him praying. I waited, and he ended his prayer with the salutation. He said to me: “What do you want?” I said: “A frog fell into thickened syrup and died in it. May it be eaten?” He said: “That is its place.” I said: “How can a frog have a place in syrup?” He said to me: “What would you say if it fell into water?” I said: “There would be no harm.” He said: “It is the same in syrup, too.” I returned to al-Fuḍayl and told him. He marveled and shook his head.

Rubb is rendered “thickened syrup.” The brief reply “That is its place” is retained without supplying an explanation not stated in the text. Printed brackets are preserved.

I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh say: I heard my father say: I heard Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath say: Al-Fuḍayl used to send legal questions to Ḥammād ibn Dalīl, Abū Zayd, who was one of Abū Ḥanīfa’s companions, may God be pleased with him. I said to him: “You criticize them and then send legal questions to him?!” He said: “He is an intelligent man.” His father mentioned something similar.

Sahl ibn Khalaf ibn Wardān related to us. He said: al-Haytham, Abū Saʿīd, informed me in Samarkand. He said: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath related to us. He said: I was with al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ when a man came and said to him: “Ibn al-Mubārak has come on pilgrimage.” He said: “I have hope for the people at the standing-place because of him.” The man said: “He visits Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him.” Al-Fuḍayl said: “If he did not know that Abū Ḥanīfa was better than him, he would not visit him. I have chosen for myself what ʿAbd Allāh chose.” The man said: “I have heard that you speak against Abū Ḥanīfa.” Al-Fuḍayl said: “Sufyān used to speak against him. When he sat with him, he regretted it and sought forgiveness. Scholars have always been like this among themselves, but they did not curse.”

The printed form السفيان is rendered “Sufyān”; no full identity has been supplied.

Abū Maʿshar Ḥamdawayh ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the blind man, related to us. He said: Nūḥ ibn Aʿyan wrote to Ṣafar ibn Ibrāhīm: “Ask al-Fuḍayl for me about a frog that fell into thickened syrup.” I asked him, and he said: “Ask Abū Zayd. They have investigated what we have not investigated and asked about what we have not asked about.” I asked him, and he said: “I left the governor’s residence with Abū Yūsuf, who was riding a donkey. A man asked him about this, and he said: ‘It does not spoil the syrup.’” Abū Maʿshar said: Ṣafar ibn Ibrāhīm related reports to me, and then related this one to us.

Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Balkhī related to us. He said: ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb al-Mawṣilī related to us. He said: Muʿāwiya ibn ʿAmr related to us. He said: I heard al-Fuḍayl relate from Muḥārib. Muʿāwiya ibn ʿAmr had also related from Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, from Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, from Muḥārib ibn Dithār, from Ibn ʿUmar, may God be pleased with them both: He said: Whoever prays four units after the night prayer will have the equivalent of four such units on the Night of Decree. Muʿāwiya said: I asked al-Fuḍayl who had related it to him from Muḥārib. He said: “A man related it to me from Muḥārib.” I said: “Did al-Nuʿmān relate it to you?” He nodded his head toward me: yes.

I heard Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ghazzāl say: I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Munīr say: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath informed me, saying: I heard al-Fuḍayl say: Abū Yūsuf said—and Abū Yūsuf spoke truthfully—“Only someone who is unconcerned with this world and concerned with the next can pursue this matter to the fullest.” [Meaning the study of jurisprudence.]

ʿAmr ibn ʿĀṣim al-Marwazī related to us. He said: Muḥammad ibn Zanbūr al-Makkī related to us. He said: I heard al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ say: These people’s hearts have been imbued with love for Abū Ḥanīfa, just as the Shīʿa have been imbued with love for ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may God be pleased with him, to the point that they see no one as more knowledgeable than Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him.