so I set out for Bab al-Halaba (the Racetrack Gate). A voice called out to me, “Where are you going?” The unseen speaker gave me a shove that sent me sprawling and said, “Turn back, for people will derive benefit from you.” I replied, “I am seeking the safety of my religion.” He answered, “That is granted to you,” yet I never saw who he was.
After that, overwhelming spiritual states continued to seize me, and I kept wishing for someone who could disclose their meaning to me. While passing through al-Zafariyya (1), a man opened his door and said, “ʿAbd al-Qadir, what was it you asked for last night?” I had forgotten and remained silent. Annoyed, he slammed the door in my face with great force. When I had walked on a little, the matter came back to me; I returned to look for the door, but it had disappeared.
That man was Hammad al-Dabbas, as I learned later. He went on to clarify everything that had puzzled me. Whenever I left him to pursue my studies and came back, he would say, “Why have you come to us? You are a jurist—go to the jurists,” whereupon I would keep quiet.
On one Friday, I went out with the group in biting cold. He pushed me and knocked me into the water, and I said, “This is the Friday bath—in the name of Allah.” I was wearing a woollen robe, and in my sleeve were some booklets; I lifted my sleeve so the booklets would not be ruined. They left me and walked on. I wrung out the robe and followed them, suffering greatly from the cold. The shaykh would harass and strike me, and when I arrived he would say, “A great deal of bread and faludhaj came to us today; we ate it all and saved none for you—out of sympathy for you.”
His companions then coveted me and said, “You are a jurist; what are you doing with us?” When he saw them troubling me he became protective and said, “You dogs! Why do you harm him? By Allah, none of you is his equal. I only subject him to hardship to test him, and I find him a mountain that does not budge.”
Some time later a man from Hamadan named Yusuf al-Hamadhani—people said he was the qutb—arrived and took lodging in a ribat. I went to see him but did not find him, and I was told, “He is in the cellar.” I descended to him; when he saw me he rose, seated me, spread something for me, recounted all my states, and resolved whatever had been problematic for me. Then he said, “Address the people.” I replied, “My master, I am a man…"