Ibn Ṭāhir said: When Saʿd resolved to settle as a permanent neighbour of the Sacred Mosque, he also bound himself to more than twenty personal pledges—rigorous devotions and disciplines—and for forty years he never broke a single one of them.

While in Mecca he would dictate ḥadith from inside his own home—that is, out of fear of the ʿUbaydī regime (1).

Ibn Ṭāhir also related: I once visited him while I was vexed on account of a man from Shīrāz. Without my telling him anything he said to me, “Do not let it trouble you. In our land people say: ‘Stinginess is Ahwāzī, foolishness is Shīrāzī, and loquacity is Rāzī.’”

I came to him another time after resolving to depart for ʿIrāq, and he recited:
“Are we the travellers, so that we should weep,
or are we the ones who stay…?”
I asked, “What does the shaykh advise?” He replied, “You would enter Khurāsān and miss Egypt, and something of Egypt would remain lodged in your heart. Go first to Egypt, then proceed to ʿIrāq and Khurāsān; that way nothing will elude you.” His counsel proved full of blessing.

I heard him while the Ṣaḥīḥ of Abū Dharr (2) was being read before him. He remarked, “It contains a report from Abū Muslim al-Kātib, and that is not among the criteria of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

I say: Saʿd composed a poem on the principles of Ahl al-Sunnah. It reads:
Reflect on Allah’s Word and trust the transmitted report;
Forsake every opinion unsupported by a trace of proof.

Hold fast to the path of guidance and follow those first ones—
They witnessed the Revelation—so that you may be restored.

And be certain (3) that we, and every accountable soul,
Have been commanded to pursue the truth and act with care.