acts of worship, supererogatory devotions, litanies, and strenuous exertion in hope of salvation, until he had crossed those steep passes and borne those hardships—yet still did not attain the goal to which he aspired.

He then related that he reviewed the sciences afresh, plunged into the subtler disciplines, and met their specialists until their doors opened to him. For a period he remained amid debates and the weighing of competing proofs. Thereafter a door of fear was opened to him that absorbed him from all else and drove him to turn away from everything besides it, until the matter became easy for him. He disciplined himself, the realities were unveiled, and what we had once imagined to be no more than formal observance and affected comportment became, by nature and verification alike, his genuine character—a trace of the felicity allotted to him.

We next asked about the manner in which he chose to leave his house and return to that to which he was summoned. He answered apologetically, “I did not deem it permissible in my religion to stand idle, forsaking daʿwah and the benefit of seekers. It had become easy for me (1) to divulge the truth, speak it plainly, and call to it.” In this he was sincere. When the vizier’s influence waned and he realized that remaining where he was would appear as aloofness and the illusion of seeking worldly standing, he abandoned it before he was made to do so. He returned home, built beside it a madrasa for students and a khanqah for the Sufis, and divided his time among the duties of those present: completion of Qur’an recitations, sitting with people of awakened hearts, and holding classes for instruction.

He continued thus until he passed away, after enduring many kinds of calculated harassment, the opposition of adversaries, and attempts to denounce him to the rulers; yet Allah protected him from the claws of calamity.

He went on to say: “The final chapter of his life was his devotion to the pursuit of hadith and the company of…"