Abū Muḥammad Jāʿfar b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd b. Ḥibatullāh b. Aḥmad b. Yūsuf. He is from Erbil. He was a virtuous person and well-versed in many sciences. He had learned Shāfiʿī fiqh, arithmetic, farāʾiḍ (Islamic inheritance law), geometry, literature, nahw (Arabic grammar), Qurʾānic sciences, and many other disciplines. One of his poems is as follows.
“One cannot repel what destiny (qadar) brings.
Upon reflection, there are lessons to be taken from calamities.
After destinies have come, reason and vision, fear and precaution cannot repel them. Thus, one cannot be saved.
Use patience (sabr) as a weapon in all matters.
Do not be anxious or impatient over anything.
The end of your patience is victory for you.
Many hardships have come to us, but Almighty Allah has kept them away from us.
Then ease has come in place of those hardships.
One should never despair of Allah's help.
Only a community of disbelievers (kāfir) despair of His help.
I know that time is cyclical.
In one of the two days of time there is security, and in the other, danger.”