and He also said: “and exhort one another to the truth” (Al-‘Asr 3) and “and exhort one another to mercy” (Al-Balad 17).

Yet there are would-be seekers who are heavy burdens and constant annoyances: they object but do not emulate, they speak but do not act. Such people will never succeed. (1)

Al-Khatīb said: (2) Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Qaṭṭān of Nīshāpūr told me, “Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī was not reliable; he used to fabricate ḥadiths for the Sufis.”

I say: Al-Sulamī sent al-Dāraquṭnī a number of inquiries about the states of the shaykhs who transmitted ḥadith—questions posed by someone who clearly understood the discipline. All the same, his books contain fabricated reports and stories, and in his “Ḥaqāʾiq al-Tafsīr” there are passages that are utterly indefensible. Some leading scholars considered them among the heresies of the esoteric Bāṭiniyyah, while others deemed them gnostic insights and true realities. We seek Allah’s protection from deviance and from speaking according to whim, for every ounce of goodness lies in following the Sunnah and holding fast to the guidance of the Companions and the Successors, may Allah be pleased with them.

Al-Sulamī died in Shaʿbān of the year 412 AH. It is also said that he died in Rajab at Nīshāpūr, and his funeral was widely attended.

In that same year there also died: ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Jarrāḥī (3), al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿUmar ibn Barhān al-Ghazāl (4), Abūʾl-Ḥasan ibn Razqūyah (5), and Munīr ibn Aḥmad al-Khashshāb (6).