anything (1) over the reward that comes from seeking knowledge.’

I said: It is as though he meant that when a man marries for the sake of money, his reward is diminished; otherwise, if he were simply to marry in itself, that would actually be better, and it would not harm his pursuit of knowledge. On the contrary, he would then be acting upon what knowledge requires. Yet the shaykh was a stranger in the land, and he feared poverty and that his circumstances might scatter and pull him away from study.

Abu Nasr al-Sijzi said in his book Al-Ibāna: ‘Our leading authorities—Sufyan, Malik, the two Ḥammāds, Ibn ʿUyaynah, al-Fuḍayl, Ibn al-Mubarak, Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal, and Isḥaq—are all agreed that Allah, exalted is He, is above the Throne; that His knowledge is in every place; that He descends to the lowest heaven; that He becomes angry and pleased; and that He speaks whenever He wills.’

Abu Nasr passed away in Mecca, in Muḥarram of the year 444 AH.

Abu al-Ḥasan ʿAli ibn Ahmad al-Ḥusayni informed us—this was the first ḥadith I heard from him—during my recitation to him at al-Thaghr. Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qaṭiʿi in Baghdad also informed us—and that was the first ḥadith I heard from him—together with ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Yūsufi, and that too was the first ḥadith I heard (ḥ).

ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn ʿUlwān in Baalbek and ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān in Nablus likewise informed us, saying:
‘Abu Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah informed us; Aḥmad ibn al-Muqarrab informed us, saying:
Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad al-Sarrāj informed us—this was the first ḥadith we heard from him; Abu Nasr ʿUbayd Allah ibn Saʿid informed us—this was the first ḥadith I heard from him; Abu Yaʿlā al-Muhallabi informed us—this was the first ḥadith I heard from him; Abu Ḥāmid ibn Bilāl informed us—this was the first ḥadith I heard from him; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr informed us—this too was the first ḥadith I heard from him; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah informed us—and this was the first