[Ṣāliḥ:] A man whose wife had just had a baby gave my father a footed tray of honey nut pudding. In return my father gave him some sugar worth a good deal of money. 43.1

[Ṣāliḥ:] Someone sent my father some fruit as a gift. In return, my father sent him an entire garment. 43.2

[Al-Marrūdhī:] I remember that Aḥmad, when a man made him a gift of some water from Zamzam, reciprocated by sending him barley meal and sugar. Once he told me to spend five dirhams on a gift for someone, saying, “Go see his children, since he gave Saʿīd226 a gift.” 43.3

[Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm:] One of Aḥmad’s neighbors, a man named Jūwīn,227 gave him some walnuts, raisins, and figs in a bowl, the lot worth three dirhams or less. Aḥmad gave me a dinar and said, “Go buy ten dirhams’ worth of sugar and seven dirhams’ worth of dates, and drop it off at his place at night.” 43.4

I did as he asked.

[Ibrāhīm ibn Hāniʾ:] A man from Samarqand came with a letter of recommendation from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, so Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal agreed to teach him. One day the man gave him a garment as a gift. Aḥmad gave it to my father and said, “Take it to the market and find out what it’s worth.” 43.5

My father said, “I took it to the market and they told me it was worth twenty-some dirhams, and I came back and told Aḥmad. He stopped letting the man in until he could buy two garments and two face veils—or a garment and a face veil—to give him in return. Once he had sent the gifts, he allowed the man in again to hear Hadith.” [Ḥanbal:] Aḥmad had a friend named Maḥfūẓ who had traveled with him to study with ʿAbd al-Razzāq. The two had a real liking for each other. One day, a messenger of his appeared out of nowhere bringing some baskets of premium Barnī dates. I went in and told Aḥmad. He accepted the gift, but he sent Maḥfūẓ a garment in return.

Maḥfūẓ came to see him and said, “Aḥmad, your gift distressed me.” 43.6

“And yours distressed me too,” he replied.