152 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā al-ʿUklī narrated to me, from Muḥammad ibn Misʿar al-Yarbūʿī, who said: ʿAṭiyya ibn Sulaymān narrated to me, saying: I performed the Friday prayer (Jumuʿa) and then departed. I sat with Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd until we prayed the afternoon prayer (ʿAṣr). He said: "Would you like to attend a funeral (janāza)?" He said: So we went toward the district of Banū Saʿd and prayed over a funeral (janāza). Then he said: "Would you like to visit so-and-so, the worshipper, to check on him?"

So we came to a man who had been afflicted in his mouth with a malignant ulcer that exposed his molars. When he wanted to speak, he would call for a wooden bowl of water and a piece of cotton, wet his tongue, and then speak good, wholesome words. When we entered upon him, he called for the bowl to do as he usually did. While he was wetting his tongue, his two eyeballs fell out into the cup! He took them, rolled them between his hands, and said: "I indeed feel grease in them, and I did not think anything remained in them." Then he faced the Qibla and said: "Praise be to Allah, who gave them to me and let me enjoy them through my youth and health, until when my days expired and my appointed time arrived, He took them from me, to exchange them for me—if Allah wills—with something better than them."

Yūnus said to him: "We had prepared ourselves to offer you condolences, but now we shall congratulate you!" So he spoke well and prayed for us. Then we left his presence and came to Abū Rajāʾ al-ʿUṭāridī and related our story to him. He said: "You attended a festival, sat until you prayed in congregation (jamāʿa), followed a funeral (janāza), visited a sick person, and visited a brother; you have indeed attained great good! And by Allah, I too have attained good: last night I recited more than a thousand verses."