Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Samad ibn Ali al-Dinawari, the preacher

ʿAbd al-Samad ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAli, Abu al-Qasim al-Dinawari, a preacher and ascetic, studied Shafiʿi jurisprudence under Abu Saʿid al-Istakhri and kept to a path proverbial for its striving against the self, its austerity and its enjoining of good. He died in Baghdad in the year 397 AH. ¹

He used to pound sa'd (a perfume ingredient) for the perfumers. He heard a Jewish perfumer tell his son that he had tested these Muslims and found no one trustworthy among them. ʿAbd al-Samad left him alone for a few days, then came back and hired himself out to guard his shop for three ratls of bread and two silver dirhams a day, and he worked with him for a year. When it ended, the perfumer said: "Look at your shop; have you found any betrayal or fault?" He said: "No, by God." ʿAbd al-Samad said: "I did not want to work for you. I heard you tell your son that you had not found a trustworthy man among the Muslims, so I wanted to refute your words and show you that if someone like me, one of the poor in this condition, is like this, then others among the Muslims are like it, and more so." Then he left him. ²

A man brought him a hundred dinars to give him. He said: "I have no need of them." The man said: "Then we will share them among these companions of yours." He said: "Put them on the ground," and he did. ʿAbd al-Samad said to the group: "Whoever of you needs something should take according to his need." They divided it among themselves in different shares, and he did not touch it with his own hand. An hour later his son came to him asking for something, and he said: "Go to the grocer and take a quarter ratl of dates from him on account." ³

He bought a chicken, fruit and sweets one day. One of his companions saw him, was surprised, and followed him. He knocked on the door of widows and orphans and gave them these things. Then he turned, saw his companion, and said to him: "The pious man outdoes the people of appetites, and gives these things away in private, so that his body is not worn out by them and his name is not made known by giving them up." He died on Tuesday, seven days before the end of Dhu al-Hijja; some say he died at night. In his last moments he used to say: "My master, I kept you for this very hour." He was prayed over at the Mansur Mosque and buried in the cemetery of Imam Ahmad. ³