Hilāl b. Muhsin b. Ibrāhīm b. Hilāl. His kunya was Abū'l-Khayr. He worked as a scribe. He was a Ṣābiʾī (a member of the Sabian religion). He authored a history. His grandfather, Abū Isḥāq al-Ṣābiʾī, was also the author of treatises. His father was also a Ṣābiʾī. However, Hilāl later became Muslim. He lived Islam beautifully. Even before entering Islam, he listened to hadith from some hadith scholars, for he would visit them in order to learn proper conduct (adab). After entering Islam, this was of great benefit to him. Ibn al-Jawzī—
—according to what he related, this was the cause of his entering Islam. And again, Ibn al-Jawzī narrates his conversion to Islam as follows: “Hilāl b. Muhsin saw the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) many times in his dream. The Messenger of God would always invite him to iman (faith) in Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, command him to enter Islam, and say to him, ‘You are an intelligent man—why do you abandon the religion of Islam, which is supported by proofs?’ In the dream, he would show him some miracles that he witnessed while awake. For example, he said to him: ‘Your wife is pregnant with a boy. When he is born, name him Muḥammad.’ Indeed, his wife gave birth to a boy, and he named him Muḥammad, and gave him the kunya Abū'l-Ḥasan.”
The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) showed him many more miracles, which Ibn al-Jawzī recounts in detail. Upon these warnings and miracles, Hilāl b. Muhsin became Muslim and lived Islam beautifully. He was a truthful and loyal person. He died this year at the age of ninety. He lived more than forty years of his life as a Muslim.