and to look upon people with an eye that excuses them, to persist in one’s regular litanies, and to avoid taking legal concessions.

Al-Sulamī said: Abu al-Qāsim used to carry an inkwell and some paper; whenever we entered a town he would say to me, “Rise, that we may listen.” When we reached Baghdad we visited al-Qaṭīʿī. He had a copyist who made several mistakes, and Abu al-Qāsim kept correcting him. After the third correction al-Qaṭīʿī said, “Man, if you can read well, then go ahead.” Abu al-Qāsim rose, took the fascicle, and recited it with a mastery that amazed al-Qaṭīʿī and those around him.

The copyist then asked me, “Who is this?” I replied, “The master Abu al-Qāsim al-Nasrābādhī.” He stood up and proclaimed, “People, this is the shaykh of Khurāsān!”

Al-Sulamī continued: On one occasion he led us out to pray for rain. He prepared a large meal and fed the poor, whereupon rain poured down like water from bursting skins. He and I were unable to go on, so we took shelter in a mosque. He kept shielding himself, and we were fasting. He asked, “Shall I go to the doors and beg a crust for you?” I said, “Allah forbid!” All the while he was chanting:

They went out seeking rain, so I said to them, “Stand still—
my tears will take the place of gathering clouds for you.”
“You speak the truth,” they said, “your tears suffice,
but they are mingled with blood.” (1)

Abu al-Faḍl ibn ʿAsākir told us—having heard it from al-Muʾayyad al-Ṭūsī—who reported from Abu al-Asʿad ibn al-Qushayrī, who said: “My grandfather Abu al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī vested me with the patched cloak; he had received it from the master Abu ʿAlī al-Daqqāq, from Abu al-Qāsim al-Nasrābādhī, from Abu Bakr al-Shiblī, from al-Junayd, from Sarī al-Saqaṭī, from Maʿrūf al-Karkhī—may Allah have mercy on them all.”

I add: What comes after Maʿrūf is interrupted; they claim that he received it from Dāwūd