Takhrij Hadith 933: "While I was circumambulating the…"

While I was circumambulating the Sacred House, I was struck by the great number of pilgrims performing Hajj and ‘Umrah, so I said: : "If only I knew who among them has had his pilgrimage accepted so that I could congratulate him, and who among them has been rejected so that I could console him". That night, I saw in my dream as if someone was saying : "Malik ibn Dinar, you are thinking about the pilgrims and those performing ‘Umrah. By Allah, Allah has forgiven them all: the young and the old, the male and the female, the black and the white, the Arab and the non-Arab, except for one man. Allah is angry with him, has rejected his Hajj, and has cast it back upon his face". Malik said: I spent that night in a state known only to Allah, fearing that I might be that man. On the following night, I saw the same dream again, except that it was said to me: "You are not that man. Rather, he is a man from Khurasan, from a city called Balkh, named Muhammad ibn Harun al-Balkhi. Allah is angry with him, has rejected his Hajj, and has cast it back upon his face". When morning came, I went to the people from Khurasan and asked: "Are there any people from Balkh among you?" They replied: "Yes". I went to them, greeted them, and asked: "Is there a man among you named Muhammad ibn Harun?" They said: "Wonderful, Malik! You ask about a man than whom there is no one in Khurasan more devoted in worship, more ascetic, or more learned in recitation". I was astonished by their praise of him despite what I had seen in my dream, so I said: "Guide me to him". They replied: "For forty years he has fasted by day and stood in prayer by night. He lives only among ruins. We think he is in one of the ruined places of Makkah". So I wandered among the ruins until I found him standing behind a wall. His right hand had been cut off and was hanging from his neck. It had pierced through his collarbone and was fastened by two heavy chains to his feet, while he alternated between bowing and prostrating in prayer. When he heard the sound of my footsteps, he turned and said: "Who are you?" I replied: "Malik ibn Dinar". He said: "Malik, what has brought you to me? Did you see a dream? Tell it to me". I said: : "I feel ashamed to tell it to your face". He replied: "Do not be ashamed". So I related the dream to him. He wept for a long time and then said: "Malik, this dream has been seen concerning me for forty years. Every year a devout man like you sees it. I am one of the people of the Fire". I asked: : "Is there a great sin between you and Allah?" He replied: : "Yes. My sin is greater than the heavens, the earth, the mountains, the Throne, and the Footstool". I said: "Tell me so that people may beware and never commit what you did". He said: "Malik, I was a man who drank intoxicants excessively. One day I drank with a close companion until I became drunk and lost my senses. I returned home and found my mother preparing bread in our oven, whose inside had become white with heat. When she saw me staggering in my drunkenness, she came to admonish me, saying: : "Today is the last day of Shaban and tonight is the first night of Ramadan. Tomorrow people will begin fasting, while you will wake up drunk. Do you not feel ashamed before Allah?" I raised my hand and struck her. She said: "May you be ruined". Angered by her words, and still overcome by drunkenness, I picked her up and threw her into the oven. When my wife saw what I had done, she carried me away, locked me in a room, and shut the door on me. At the end of the night, when my drunkenness had worn off, I called to my wife to open the door. She answered me harshly. I said: "Why are you treating me so harshly when I have never known this from you?" She replied: "You deserve no mercy". I asked: "Why?" She said: "You have killed your mother. You threw her into the oven and she was burned to death". When I heard this, I could not control myself. I tore the door open and ran to the oven. There she was, burned like a loaf of bread. I looked around and saw an axe. I placed my right hand on the threshold of the door and cut it off with my left hand. Then I pierced my collarbone, passed a chain through it, and fastened my feet with these two heavy shackles. I owned eight thousand dinars, which I gave away in charity before sunset. I freed twenty-six slave women and twenty-three slave men, dedicated all my property in the cause of Allah, and for forty years I have fasted by day and stood in prayer by night, breaking my fast only with a handful of chickpeas. Every year I perform Hajj, and every year a learned man like you sees this same dream about me. Yet I am one of the people of the Fire". Malik said: I struck my face with my hands and said: "Wretched man, you nearly burned the earth and everyone upon it with your fire". Then I withdrew from him until I could hear him but no longer see him. He raised his hand toward the sky and supplicated: "O Reliever of distress, O Remover of grief, O Answerer of the prayer of those in desperate need, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your anger, and in Your pardon from Your punishment. Do not cut off my hope, and do not leave my supplication unanswered". Malik said: I returned to my home and slept. I then saw the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in my dream, saying: "Malik, do not cause people to despair of Allah's mercy or lose hope in His forgiveness. Allah looked from the highest assembly upon Muhammad ibn Harun, answered his supplication, and pardoned his lapse. Go to him tomorrow and tell him: Allah will gather the first and the last on the Day of Resurrection. He will grant justice even to the hornless sheep against the horned one. He will bring you together with your mother, Muhammad ibn Harun, and judge between the two of you. He will command the angels to lead you in heavy chains toward the Fire. When you have tasted it for the equivalent of three days and nights of this worldly life, I have sworn by Myself that no servant of Mine who drinks intoxicants and kills the soul that I have made sacred will escape tasting the Fire, even if he were My close friend Ibrahim. Then I will place mercy into your mother's heart, inspire her to ask Me to grant you to her, and I will grant you to her, whereupon both of you will enter Paradise". Malik said: The next morning I went to him and informed him of my dream. It was as though his life was no more than a pebble dropped into a basin of water, for he died immediately, and I was among those who offered the funeral prayer over him.