among the books, and he never found the leisure to bring them out; he was absorbed in worship, one of Allah’s saints.

Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: “He is an imām, scrupulously pious, God-fearing, an ascetic who put his knowledge into practice and upheld its due. A man of spiritual states and stations, the training of sincere seekers ended with him. In his ribāṭ there gathered a company of men wholly devoted to Allah the like of whom one could scarcely imagine in any other lodge. His life was spent upon a praiseworthy path of soundness and uprightness.

“He travelled from his village to Baghdad and sought out Shaykh Abū Isḥāq, studied jurisprudence under him, and kept his company until he excelled and surpassed his peers, especially in dialectical reasoning. Abū Isḥāq preferred him to many others, despite his youth, because he recognised his good conduct and renunciation.

“Afterwards he abandoned all disputation and occupied himself with worship, calling people to Allah, and guiding his companions. He produced for us more than twenty fascicles which we heard from him.

“He came to Baghdad in 506 AH, was received with complete acceptance, preached, and the crowds thronged around him. He then returned and lived in Marw, travelled to Herat and stayed there for a while, went back to Marw, and later set out for Herat a second time (1). He died on the road, near Bagshūr (2).”

I heard Ṣāfī ibn ʿAbd Allāh the Sufi say: “I attended Yūsuf’s gathering in the Niẓāmiyya. Ibn al-Saqqā rose, offended the shaykh, and asked him a question. He said, ‘Sit down; I detect in your words a whiff of disbelief, and perhaps you will die on other than Islam.’ It so happened that Ibn al-Saqqā…"