of goodness. Until leadership in knowledge and practice came to rest with him, as did ascetic renunciation and scrupulous piety, courage and generosity, humility and forbearance (1) together with continual turning to Allah, majestic dignity and an awe-inspiring presence (2), enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and every form of jihad. Alongside all that he was marked by truthfulness and trustworthiness (3), chastity and uprightness, sound intention [ق 4] and sincerity, fervent supplication to Allah, abundant fear of Him and constant vigilance of Him (4), firm adherence to the transmitted tradition, calling people to Allah, noble character, benefiting the creation and showing kindness to them, patiently enduring those who harmed him, pardoning them and praying for them—indeed, every variety of goodness.

He, may Allah have mercy upon him, was an unsheathed sword against the dissenters, a thorn lodged in the throats of the innovators driven by their whims (5), and an imam devoted to clarifying the truth and upholding the religion. He was an ocean that buckets could not muddy, a master-scholar whom the best of the discerning righteous (6) took as a model; his fame hummed through every land, and the passing ages have been miserly in producing his like.

Our shaykh, the ḥāfiẓ Abū Ḥajjāj (7), said, “I have never seen anyone comparable to him, nor has he seen anyone comparable to himself. I have not encountered anyone more knowledgeable of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger, nor anyone who adhered to them more closely than he.”