—at Fajr he would recite the protective verses (āyāt al-ḥirs), Sūrah Yā Sīn, Sūrah al-Wāqiʿah, and Sūrah Tabārak (al-Mulk). He would then listen to the Qurʾān being recited, correcting and teaching until the sun was high. After that he prayed the Ḍuḥā prayer and lengthened it, and he stood in prolonged worship between the two night prayers. Every Thursday night he performed Ṣalāt al-Tasbīḥ, and on Friday he prayed two rakʿas in which he recited “Say: He is Allah, One” one hundred times. It was said that his supererogatory prayers each day and night numbered seventy-two rakʿas.
He maintained lengthy litanies; after ʿIshāʾ he would again recite the protective verses. He had regular invocations for sleep and for waking, and various forms of glorification. He never neglected the Friday bath. From memory he would copy al-Khiraqī’s manual, and he possessed sound knowledge of jurisprudence, Arabic, and the laws of inheritance.
He attended to people’s needs; if any member of the community travelled, he looked after that person’s family. People came to him with disputes, and he reconciled them. He inspired awe and commanded respect in every heart.
Shaykh Muwaffaq said: “My brother reared us, taught us, and cared for us. For the group he was like a father, watching over them and seeing to their affairs. He is the one who emigrated with us, who escorted us to Baghdad, who took charge of building the monastery; when we returned, he arranged our marriages and built houses for us outside the monastery. He seldom missed a military expedition.”
Shaykh al-Ḍiyāʾ said: “When the ordeal (1) befell the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī and the news reached Abū ʿUmar, he collapsed unconscious and did not revive for an hour. He often gave some of his clothes in charity; in winter his cloak might be without an under-shirt, and on occasion he would give away even his trousers. His turban was merely a strip of lining; if anyone needed a rag, he would tear off a piece for him. He wore coarse garments, slept on a mat, and might donate something while his own family were in need of it.
His robe reached midway down his shins and his sleeve to his wrists. I heard my mother say, “For a time the people of the monastery lived on nothing but what came from the house of my brother Abū ʿUmar, and he used to say: If you do not…"