—to such an extent that a madrasa was erected for him in Naysabur, the like of which had never been seen there before, and he himself took up the post of teaching in it (1).

Among the sayings of this master is his remark: “The claim that every mujtahid (independent jurist) is correct begins in sophistry and ends in outright heresy.” (2)

Al-Faqih Abū al-Qasim related: “Whenever our teacher, the Professor, addressed this question, people would say, ‘Just now the pen has been lifted from him’—meaning Abū Isḥaq—because he would curse, grow heated, and do other such things.” (3)

Abū al-Qasim al-Qushayrī also reported that he used to deny the karamat (miraculous favors) of the saints and deemed them impossible; this is a grave lapse.

Those who died the same year, 418 AH, include: Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yazdād al-Iṣbahānī, known as Ghulām Muḥsin (4); the eminent vizier Abū al-Qasim al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Maghribī (5), who passed away in Mayyāfāriqīn—the Ḥākim had earlier killed his father, his uncle, and his brothers; Abū al-Qasim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī, al-Sarrāj, companion of al-Aṣamm; the ḥadith scholar Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Jaʿfar al-Maydānī (6), the copyist; the Shāfiʿī jurist and preacher Muḥammad ibn Zuhayr al-Nasāʾī (7)—he had heard traditions from al-Aṣamm; Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Rūzbihān al-Baghdādī, transmitter from al-Sutūrī; and the shaykh of the Sufis, Muʿammar ibn