of al-Tirmidhī. I have pointed both of them out in my own copy, whereas in other copies the error still remains (1).

Al-Muʾtaman said: “He would enter upon princes and despots without the slightest concern, yet when he met an unfamiliar hadith scholar he would go to great lengths to honor him. On one occasion he told me:

‘This discipline is the discipline of one who has no concern but this concern’—meaning the pursuit of hadith. I also heard him say, ‘I abandoned al-Ḥīrī (2) for the sake of Allah.’”

He added: “He left him only because he had heard from him something contrary to the Sunnah (3).”

I remark: Al-Ḥīrī was versed in kalām according to the Ashʿarī school, whereas Shaykh al-Islam was a thoroughgoing atharī traditionalist who took aim at the dialectical theologians; for that reason he distanced himself from al-Ḥīrī. Nonetheless, al-Ḥīrī was a reliable scholar from whom al-Bayhaqī and many others narrated extensively.

Al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Kutubī said: “Shaykh al-Islam used to write out collections of selected narrations (al-Fawāʾid) in his own hand for a number of people until he lost his eyesight. He would dictate what was to be copied and then proof-read it himself. Out of humility he even compiled a collection for me, and I am now the only person for whom he did so who is still alive (4).”

Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir said: “I heard Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī say, ‘Whenever I cite Qur’anic exegesis, I draw upon one hundred and seven tafsirs.’

I also heard him recite from his pulpit:
‘I am Ḥanbalī as long as I live, and should I die,
my testament to the people is that they become Ḥanbalīs.’ (5)