Abū Bakr b. Abī ʿAmr al-Anṣārī. He was the freedman of Anas b. Mālik al-Naḍrī. His father was among the captives taken by Khālid b. al-Walīd during the campaign of ʿAyn al-Tamr. Anas purchased him and then manumitted him on the condition that he pay a certain sum. His father had many virtuous children. Their names can be listed as follows: Muhammad b. Sirin, Anas b. Sirin, Maʿbad, Yaḥyā, Ḥafṣa, Karīma. All of them were trustworthy and highly esteemed members of the tābiʿūn (the generation following the Companions). May Allah have mercy on them.
Al-Bukhārī said: “Muhammad b. Sirin was born two years before the end of the caliphate of ʿUthmān.”
Hishām b. Ḥassān said: “Muhammad b. Sirin was the most truthful person I have ever seen.”
If someone in the presence of Ibn Sirin described a man by his bad qualities, he would instead mention the good qualities he knew about that man. Khalaf b. Hishām said: “Muhammad b. Sirin was granted hudā (guidance), dignity, humility, and taqwa (God-consciousness). When people saw him, they would remember Allah.”
When Anas b. Mālik was about to die, he bequeathed that Muhammad b. Sirin should wash his body. However, when he died, Muhammad was in prison. When they told him to come and wash Anas, he said, “I am imprisoned.” When they said, “We have sought permission from the governor for you to be released to wash the body,” Muhammad replied, “It was not the governor who imprisoned me; it was the rightful claimant.” Thereupon, the rightful claimant gave permission for him to be released to wash the body. He went out and washed Anas.
Yūnus said: Whenever Muhammad b. Sirin was faced with two options, he would always choose the one that was most sound religiously.
Muhammad b. Sirin said: “I know the sin for which I was punished. One day I said to a man, ‘O bankrupt one!’ That is the sin for which I was punished.”
When this was related to Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī, he said: “Their sins were few, so they knew the sin for which they were punished. But people like us have many sins; we do not know for which sin we are punished or for which crime we will be questioned.”
When Muhammad b. Sirin was invited to a wedding feast, he would first go home and say to his wife, “Bring me some porridge.” After drinking the porridge, he would say, “I do not want to bring my hunger to the tables and food of others.”
Muhammad b. Sirin would enter the market at noon, say the takbīr, engage in tasbīḥ (glorification), and remember Allah, saying: “This is a time when people are heedless.”
Let us continue to relate the sayings of Muhammad b. Sirin:
“When Allah intends good for a servant, He makes his qalb (the heart) a preacher for him. His heart prevents him from evil and directs him to good.”
“To mention your brother’s faults and conceal his virtues is injustice to him.”
“Seclusion is worship.”
When death was mentioned in the presence of Muhammad b. Sirin, all his limbs would become as if lifeless. In another narration, it is said that when death was mentioned in his presence, his color would change and he would take on a completely different state, as if he were not the same as before.
When asked about the ruling of dreams, he would say to the questioner: “Fear Allah while awake. Be taqwa (God-conscious) towards Him. Do not let what you see in dreams deceive you.”
A man said to him:
- I saw in a dream that I poured olive oil into an olive.
- Investigate your wife’s situation. Know that she is your mother. The man investigated his wife’s situation and indeed discovered that she was his mother. This happened as follows: The man had been taken captive as a child and brought from his homeland. He grew up in an Islamic land. Later, his mother was also taken captive. Unknowingly, he purchased his own mother. When he saw this dream and related it to Muhammad b. Sirin, Muhammad ordered him to investigate. Upon investigation, he discovered that his wife was in fact his mother.
Another man asked Muhammad b. Sirin the following:
- In my dream, I saw myself stepping on a date seed. A mouse came out of the date seed I stepped on.
- You will marry a righteous woman, and she will give birth to a sinful daughter.
Indeed, such an event occurred.
Another man asked Muhammad b. Sirin to interpret the following dream:
- In my dream, I saw a few barley grains on the roof of my house. A rooster came and ate those grains.
- If something of yours is stolen these days, come to me.
The man’s family had spread a carpet on their roof, but the carpet was stolen. The man went to Muhammad b. Sirin and told him what happened. Muhammad b. Sirin said to him: “Go to the muezzin of your neighborhood and take your carpet from him!” The owner went to the muezzin and retrieved his carpet from him.
A man said to him: “In my dream, I saw a dove pecking at jasmine.” Muhammad replied: “The scholars of Basra have died.”
A man came to Muhammad b. Sirin and said:
- In my dream, I saw a naked man standing in a garbage dump playing a reed flute.
- This dream in our time fits only al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.
- By Allah, the one I saw in my dream resembled al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.
- Yes, because the garbage dump you saw in your dream is the world. Ḥasan has placed the world beneath his feet. His nakedness means he has renounced the world. As for the reed flute he was playing, it is the sermons and admonitions he delivers to people, striking their ears with them.
Another person said to Muhammad b. Sirin:
- In my dream, I saw myself using a miswāk (tooth-stick) and blood was coming from my mouth.
- You are someone who attacks people’s honor, backbites them, and enters their homes.
A man told Muhammad b. Sirin about a dream he had:
- In my dream, I saw a pearl in the mud.
- You are a man who relates the Qur’an and knowledge to those who are not worthy of them and do not benefit from them.
A woman came to Muhammad b. Sirin and told him about a dream she had:
- I saw a cat (sinnevr) put its head into my husband’s belly and take out a piece from it. What does this mean?
- Your husband’s 316 dirhams have been stolen.
- You are correct, but how did you know?
- I calculated it by the abjad value of the letters in the word ‘sinnevr’: sīn is 60, nūn is 50, wāw is 6, rāʾ is 200, which totals 316.
- The cat I saw in the dream was black.
- The person who stole your husband’s money is a slave in your household. The family investigated among their servants and found a black slave, whom they punished. He confessed to stealing the mentioned sum.
A man said to Muhammad b. Sirin:
- I saw in my dream that my beard had grown long and I was looking at my long beard.
- Are you a muezzin? -Yes.
- Fear Allah and do not look into the houses around the mosque. Another man said to Muhammad b. Sirin:
- I saw in my dream that my beard had grown long. I cut it, placed it on a loom as a display, and sold it in the market.
- Fear Allah. You are giving false testimony. Another man said:
- I saw in my dream that I was eating my fingers.
- You are a man who lives off the work of your own hands.