‘O Allaah! Do not cause me to become famous but take me back to You!’

‘Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak (rahimahullaah) narrated:

 

‘I was in Makkah when the people were afflicted with a drought. So they all came out to Masjid al-Haram for Istisqaa’ (prayer for rain) but they were not granted rain, & to my side was a black slave.

He said, ‘O Allaah, O Allaah. They have surely called You but You did not respond. I swear to You & take an oath by You that You will indeed provide water for us.’

Ibn al-Mubarak said, ‘By Allaah, it was only a short moment before we were granted rain.’

He continued saying, ‘The black slave departed & I followed him until he entered a house in
Hanatin. I put a mark on it & in the morning, I took some money & went to the house.”

A man came to the door and I said to him, ‘I want to see the owner of this house.’

He said, ‘It’s me.’

I said, ‘There is a slave of yours whom I wish to purchase.’

He said, ‘I have fourteen servants, I’ll bring them out to you.’

Ibn al-Mubarak said, ‘but he was not amongst them.’ So I said to him (the man), ‘Anyone left?’

He said, ‘A sick boy.’ He brought him out & it was him.

I said, ‘Sell him to me.’

He said, ‘He is yours, O Abu Abdur-Rahman.’

So I gave him fourteen dinars & I took the servant. When we had gone along the way, he said, ‘O master, what could you want with me when I am ill?’

I said to him, ‘It’s because of what I saw yesterday evening (during the istisqaa’).’

The boy leaned against the wall & said, ‘O Allaah! Do not cause me to become famous but take me back to You!’

Ibn al-Mubarak: ‘He fell down dead & the people of Makkah began to surround him…’

~

[Sifat al-Safwah by Ibn al-Jawzi]