…and he also received a reading of the Sunan of Abu Dawud from al-Fadl ʿAbd al-Majid ibn Dalil. On that occasion, Abu ʿAli ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAli ibn Ibrahim ibn Bahr al-Tustari in Basra related: “Abu ʿUmar al-Qasim ibn Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd al-Wahid al-Hashimi told us; he said: Abu ʿAli Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAmr al-Luʾluʾi told us; he said: Abu Dawud narrated….” (1) The city meant here is Alexandria. He settled there after seeing that its mosques and madrasas were deserted of students and scholars because the ʿUbaydids were hunting down Sunni scholars—banishing, killing, and torturing them. So he remained there, may God have mercy on him, until his death, spreading knowledge, teaching the people their religion, and strengthening their attachment to the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger, in accordance with the way of the righteous early generations whose excellence was certified by the Prophet himself. He used to say: “If God asks me why I stayed in Alexandria—at a time when, under the ʿUbaydids, the Friday prayer was abandoned and other abominations were rife—I will answer: ‘I found a people astray and became the cause of their guidance.’” Al-Afdal, the ʿUbaydid vizier, mistreated him, expelled him from Alexandria, forced him to reside in Cairo, and forbade people to study with him. He remained in that state until al-Afdal was killed and al-Maʾmun ibn al-Bataʾihi succeeded him; the latter showed the shaykh great honour. (2) Al-Sila, 2/575. It adds that Qadi Abu Bakr said the shaykh would often recite to us: Truly, God has sagacious servants Who divorced this world and feared its trials; They pondered it, and when they knew That it offers no living soul a home, They deemed it an ocean and took Righteous deeds therein as their ships.