Mending the hearts of people.

Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki was a vizier to Harun al-Rashid. He used to give Sufyan ibn ‘Uyaynah one thousand dirhams every month so that poverty wouldn’t distract him from spreading the Sunnah and teaching fiqh among the people.

Sufyan would make du‘ā’ for Yahya in his prostration, saying:

“O Allah, Yahya has taken care of my worldly affairs, so take care of his Hereafter!”

When Yahya died, one of his companions saw him in a dream and asked:

“What did Allah do with you?”

He replied:

“He forgave me because of Sufyan’s du‘ā’.”

And perhaps your salvation could also be through a du‘ā’…

Through a heart you mend,

A tear you wipe away,

A burden you lift,

Or a distress you relieve.

Maybe Paradise lies in a box of medicine you buy every month for a patient,

Or in an amount of money you set aside for orphans.

There is nothing that draws the mercy of Allah more than mending the hearts of people.

The righteous father

Abu Jafar al-Adami relates: I was in Yemen attending to some of my needs, and I came upon a man with his young son. His son said, "This is my father and he is the best of his fathers, except he does something due to which for him" I said, "what is that he does"

He said, "I have cows that I milk in the afternoon. I milk them and come to my father while he is in prayer, and I would like that he drink before my dependents. So I remain there waiting for him with the vessel in my hand as he prays. Sometimes he does not finish and turn to me until the appearance of dawn. "I said to the father, "What do you say" He said “He has spoken the truth" and he praised his son. He said to me, "I shall inform you of mu excuse (concerning this matter). When I enter the Salah and begin reciting Quran, it takes me to great heights. It busies me such that I do not even remember him until morning”.

This affair was mentioned Abdullah ibn Marzuq so he said, "The people of Yemen are being protected because of this two person's actions"  This affair was mentioned to Sufyan bin Uyaynah and he said " The people of the world are being protected because of them". 

Source: The biography of Imam Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah by Salaahud-deen 'Ali Abdul Mawjood

Some rare dreams

Once a man visited a cemetery. Looking at the graves, he said to himself: "I wish that a miracle takes place and that some of these people come out and tell me about what they saw!" He then sat beside one of the graves pondering, when he was seized by slumber. In his sleep, someone appeared to him in a dream and said: "Do not boast about the way you fashion the gravestones and how you maintain the look of the cemetery. For under these gravestones there are people whose cheeks have decayed. Some are blessed and are awaiting God's reward and His paradise, while others are distressed with their past and are suffering the consequences of their deeds. Beware of heedlessness."


Imam Al-Junayd reported that he was once sitting by his doorsteps. A blind man who was asking people to help him passed by him. Al-Junayd said to himself: "If this man trusted in God Almighty and sat on the corner of a street, or at the entrance of a mosque, God Almighty will surely provide for him without his asking." Al-Junayd continued: "That night, a copper tray was placed before me in a dream, and that blind man was laid on it. A voice then said to me: 'Eat from the flesh of this man.' I replied: 'God is my witness, I did not backbite him. It was only a thought, and my tongue never uttered a word of that.' The voice then said: 'Remember, 0 Junayd, such an excuse cannot be accepted from a person with your level of knowledge."


After Al-Junayd's death, a disciple saw him in a dream and asked: ''What did God Almighty do to you, 0 Junayd?"Al-Junayd replied: "All the knowledge went away, and all the thoughts disappeared. Only a few prayers (Raka'h) which we used to pray in the depth of the night were of any benefit to us'.


Ibrahim AI-Khurabi once said: "I saw Bishr Al-Hafi in a dream. It seemed as though he was leaving the Mosque of Rasafa. As he walked away from the mosque, the sleeve of his shirt looked weighty, and something kept on moving inside it. I asked him: 'What did God Almighty do to you?' He replied: 'He forgave me, and He was generous to me.' I asked: 'What are you carrying in your sleeve?' He replied: 'The soul of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal visited us yesterday, and it was welcomed with showers of gems and pearls. This is the share I was able to gather from that welcome.' I asked: 'What happened to Yahya Ibn Ma'in and Ahmad Ibn Hanbal after that?' He replied: 'They were called to visit the Lord of the universes, and they were welcomed with heavenly banquets.' I asked: 'Why did you not eat with them?' He replied: 'My Lord knew how little I care for food, and He allowed me to look at His Divine Countenance.'"


One night, a woman who lived in Mecca read the Qur'an before going to sleep. In a dream, she saw maids of honor circumambulating  the Ka'aba- and carrying fine sheets covered with safflowers. The woman exclaimed in her dream: "Glory be to God! Who are these women?" A voice said to her: "Do you not know that tonight is the wedding of Abdul-Azlz Abi Dawud?" The woman woke up scared from her dream, as she heard a bursting noise coming from the street. She inquired about it to find that Abdul-Azlz Dawud has just died.


Once upon a time, a king hired a private tutor to teach his children the Qur'an and proper conduct. After the teacher had died, one day the king's children went to visit the grave of their teacher. After paying the customary greetings, they sat beside his grave and engaged in a mundane conversation, ate some fruits, and threw the peels and pits on the side of the grave. That night, the teacher came to the king in a dream and told him: "Instruct your children to refrain from visiting my grave, for they have certainly offended me." When the children learned from their father about what happened, they cried and exclaimed: "God bless his soul, for surely he is still teaching us proper conduct, even after his death."


A man said to Imam Ibn Seerin: "A man saw himself in a dream piercing eggs from the top, extracting the egg white, and leaving the egg yoke." Imam Ibn Seerin replied: "Let him come here and tell me his dream in person." At three different occasions, the man kept on asking about the meaning of that dream, and Imam Ibn Seerin insisted on the same reply. Finally, after taking a promise from Ibn Seer'in, the man confessed that he is the person who saw that dream. Imam Ibn Seer'in asked someone to call the chief of police and to tell him that this man is a body snatcher who digs the graves and steals their contents. The man immediately asked for forgiveness, repented from his doing, and promised never to do it again.


Once Sufyan Bin 'Uyaynah saw Sufyan Al-Thawri in a dream and asked him: "What is the special virtue that makes God Almighty love you?" Sufyan Al-Thawri, God bless his soul, replied: "Knowing less about people." Ibn 'Uyaynah then said: "Advise me." Sufyan Al-Thawri replied: "Use what I have just told you." Ibn 'Uyaynah added: "God have Mercy on you. There are many good brothers here, and each one of them may intercede for his fellow brother on the Day of Judgment." Sufyan Al-Thawri replied: "I wish not to know you from this day on. Have you seen harm coming from other than people you know?" Ibn 'Uyaynah continued: "I suddenly woke up crying from my dream."


Someone used to regularly recite special prayers and offer their blessing to the benefit of the soul of Raibi'a Al 'Adawiyyah, God be pleased with her. One night, he saw her in a dream, and she said to him: "Your gifts are carried to us on trays of light and are covered with light."


A man came to Imam Ibn Seerin and said: "I saw a big bird that landed upon a jasmine tree in a dream, and he ate all its flowers." Ibn Seerin's face became alarmed as he replied: "Your dream means the death of scholars."


source: Ibn Seerin's dictionary of dreams by Muhammad Al-Akili

The great Imam Sufyan bin Unaynah as a young boy

Ziyad ibn 'Ubaidullah ibn Khuzai ibn 'Abdullah ibn Mughaffal said: I heard Sufyan ibn Uyaynah say:

"My father was a money changer in Kufah and he fell into debt,so he brought us to Makkah. When we came to the Masjid for Zuhr prayer , I reached the door of the Masjid and found a Shaykh on a donkey.

He said to me, "O boy, hold on to my donkey until I enter Masjid and pray."

I said to him, " I will not do it unless you narrate to me."

He said, "And what will you do with hadith?".and he deemed me too young.

I said,"Narrate to me."

He said,"Jabir ibn 'Abdullah narrated to us, and ibn 'Abbas narrated to us," so he narrated eight hadiths to me. I then held on to his donkey, and began to memorize what he narrated to me.

Once he had prayed, he came out and said" What benefit did you acquire from what I narrated to you? You held me up."

I said," You narrated such and such." So I repeated to him all that he had narrated to me.

He said," May Allah bless you,come tomorrow to my gathering." And the Shaykh was none other than 'Amr ibn Dinar.

Shu'bah ibn al-Hajjaj said, "I saw ibn 'Uyaynah as a young boy with long tablets in the presence of 'Amr ibn Dinar ,and he was wearing a qurt(a ring place in the ears of the children) in his ear."

Ibn al-Madani said: I heard ibn 'Uyaynah say, "I sat with 'Abdul Karim al-Jazari for two years. He used to say to the people of his town,"Look at this young boy, he asks me while you do not asks me."

Ghayath ibnJafar said: I heard ibn 'Uyaynah saying," The first person to sit me against the pillar was Mis'ar ibn Kidam. I said to him, " But I am still young." He said," But you have narrations from az-Zuhri and 'Amr ibn Dinar."

The biography of Imam Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah by Salaahud-deen 'Ali Abdul Mawjood