Ibn al-Samarqandī, Abū al-Badr al-Karkhī, the ascetic Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, Abū Naṣr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī, Abū al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, and Aḥmad ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥimmān al-Hamadhānī were the last of those who narrated from him.

Al-Samʿānī said: He was the imām of the Shāfiʿīs, the professor at the Niẓāmiyya, and the leading scholar of the age. People travelled to him from distant regions, seeking him out; he stood unrivalled in abundant knowledge while displaying a fine character and a commendable way of life. The world approached him in humility, but he refused it and contented himself with a rough simplicity as long as he lived.

He authored works on uṣūl, subsidiary rulings, juristic disputes, and the madhhab. He was ascetic, scrupulous, humble, witty, generous, open-faced, perpetually cheerful, and engaging in discourse (1). A large number of people have transmitted from him.

It is related from him that he said: “I was asleep in Baghdad and I saw the Prophet — peace and blessings be upon him — with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar at his side. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Many ḥadīths have reached me from the transmitters of reports; I wish to hear a ḥadīth from you yourself, that I may be honoured by it in this world and store it as provision for the Hereafter.’ He said to me, ‘O Shaykh!’ — he called me Shaykh and addressed me as such, and I rejoiced at this — ‘Convey from me: Whoever desires safety should seek it by securing the safety of others.’ (2)

Al-Samʿānī said: I heard this in Marw from Abū al-Qāsim Ḥaydar ibn Maḥmūd al-Shīrāzī, who had heard it from Abū Isḥāq.

And from Abū Isḥāq: that a man once drove away a dog, whereupon he said, “Hold! The road is shared between you and it.” (3)