87 - 'Abdullāh narrated to us, saying: 'Abdullāh ibn Muḥammad al-Bajalī narrated to me, saying: I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Shimmās say: I heard Ḥafṣ ibn Ḥumayd say to me: "How are you?" I said: "Well." He said: "How was your arrival?" I said: "Well." He said: "The people of Merv have been talking about your arrival." I said: "I do not know." He said: "More than one person came to me saying: 'Ibrāhīm has arrived.'" Then he said to me: "Who built the city of Merv?" I said: "I do not know." He said: "A man in a city like this does not know who built it? Tomorrow, who will Ḥafṣ be? Who will Ibrāhīm be? One should not be deluded by this talk." Then he said: "I have tested people for fifty years, and I have not found a brother who covers my Nakedness, nor forgives my Sin between me and him, nor maintains ties with me if I sever them, nor makes me feel safe from him when he is angry. So being occupied with these people is great folly. Every morning I say: 'Today you take a friend, then you look into what pleases him regarding you—what gift, what greeting, what invitation?' Thus, you are forever occupied."