—for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed whoever turns a grave into a place of worship (1).

Al-Sulamī said: I heard my grandfather remark, “From the day I met al-Nasrābādhī I have never seen in him any trace of pre-Islamic conduct.”

Al-Ḥākim stated: “In his time he was the spokesman of the people of spiritual realities and a man of sound states. He collected numerous narrations from the itinerant ḥadith scholars. In his early days he earned his living as a copyist, then he disappeared from Nīshāpūr for a little over twenty years. He preached and reminded the people, performed the minor pilgrimage in 365 AH, and devoted himself to worship until he was buried in Mecca in Dhū al-Ḥijjah 367 AH, near the grave of al-Fuḍayl. His books were sold, and those writings revealed much about his spiritual states—Allah knows best.”

I heard him say—when he was reproached over the question of the spirit—“If after the Siddiqs there is a true monotheist, it is al-Ḥallāj.”

I (the author) comment: This is yet another lapse. Al-Ḥallāj was executed by the sword of the Sacred Law for heresy, and I have gathered an account of his misdeeds in two booklets (2). Al-Nasrābādhī kept company with al-Shiblī and walked precisely in his footsteps—so we seek refuge in Allah! (3)

Among his sayings: “The ends of the saints are the beginnings of the prophets.”

He also said: “When He gives, He grants you special favour; when He withholds, He shelters you. If He bestows, He busies you; if He restrains, He carries you.”

And he said: “The foundation of taṣawwuf is constant adherence to the Book and the Sunnah together with the abandonment of passions and innovations,”