Aḥmad b. Abī ʿImrān said:

“I was with Abū ‘Ayyūb Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Shujāʾ whilst he was in his house, so he sent a young boy from his servants to Abū ʿAbdullāh b. al-Aʿrābī^[1] (the author of ‘al-Gharīb) to ask him to come to him. So the boy returned and said: ‘I asked him concerning that so he said to me: ‘I have a people from the Arabs here with me, so when I finish dealing with an important matter with them then I will come.’ The boy said: ‘And I did not see anybody there with him except that there were books in front of him which he was studying, so he would sometimes look in this book and sometimes into another.’ Then before we even realised he suddenly came, so Abū Ayyūb said to him: O Abū Abdillāh Subḥān Allāh al-ʿAẓīm (free is Allāh from all imperfections the Great)! You stayed away from us and prevented us from being in your company. And indeed the boy informed me that he did not see a single person there with you, yet you said: ‘I have a people from the Arabs here with me, so when I finish dealing with an important matter with them then I will come.’ So Ibn al-Aʿrābī said:

We have companions their speech does not bore us,

profusely intelligent, trustworthy in absence and in attendance

They benefit us with their knowledge, a knowledge that was long ago,

and with intelligence, discipline and having correct opinion

Without any tribulation to be feared nor any evil companionship,

and amongst them we worry not about their tongue and hand

So if you were to say ‘the dead’ then you would not be untruthful,

and were you to say ‘alive’ then you would not be charged with feeble-mindedness.