Ruwīm ibn Aḥmad and Ibn ʿAṭāʾ, and he met al-Ḥallāj as well. He was among the most learned of the shaykhs in the outward sciences, firmly adhering to the Quran and the Sunnah, a Shāfiʿī jurist (1).

Ahmad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us verbatim; ʿUmar ibn Karam narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Awwal ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Ahmad narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Bākawayh narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Khafīf al-Ḍabbī narrated to us. He said:
“It was read to Ḥammād ibn Mudrik while I was listening: ʿAmr ibn Marzūq narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṣāmit, from Abū Dharr, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘When you cook a pot of stew, put plenty of broth in it, then look for a household among your neighbors and give them a share of it as a kindness.’ (2)

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Shīrāzī said:
‘I do not think the path of Sufism will end except with Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khafīf. Though he was of princely stock, he embraced renunciation to such an extent that he said: “I used to collect rags from rubbish heaps, wash them, and mend from them what I wore. For forty months I broke my fast each night with only a palmful of broad beans. When I was cupped, what came out was like water tinged with meat; I lost consciousness, and the cupper was bewildered, saying, ‘I have never seen a body without blood except this one.’”’ (3)

Ibn Bākawayh said: I heard Abū Aḥmad al-Kabīr say, ‘I heard Ibn Khafīf say: “I was plundered in the desert and went hungry until eight of my teeth fell out and my hair dropped, then—”’