the sciences.

I said, “I have memorised the Qur’an in all its narrated readings.”

He replied, “No—not until you truly grasp its interpretation.”

“So teach me,” I pleaded.

“Tomorrow,” he said, “come to me in the Sammākīn quarter.”

I went early, and when we were alone he began to explain the Qur’an with a marvellous, astonishing commentary, bringing forth meanings (1) that left me awestruck. I said, “I should like to write down what you are saying.”

He asked, “How old do you think I am?”

“About seventy,” I answered.

“Rather, one hundred and ten,” he said. “I pursued knowledge for forty years, then left off teaching. So ask Allah to grant you deep understanding of the religion.”

From then on, whatever he imparted to me I retained by heart.

He continued, “Everything you now see in me is but a trace of his blessing. I heard him say, ‘The spiritual Pole (qutb) of the earth today is Ibn al-Ashqar—or perhaps he said al-Ashqar—and if he dies before me, I shall become the Pole.’”

Al-Mursī added, “Ibn Dahhāq recited to me—reciting verses of al-Shawdhī which he had composed himself:

When Existence spoke, a band inclined their ears
 to the utterance of Existence;
That speech holds no obscurity,
 yet it lies beyond the reach of the dull-witted.
So be perceptive and you will be summoned from near;
 do not be one who is called from afar.

Al-Mursī met in Fez Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Kattānī, an imam in legal theory and asceticism. He said, “So I wrote to Ibn al-Marʾa:

O lofty standard whose rank is exalted,
 you whose dwelling is above the Pleiades;
You are the radiant dawn for any seeker
 of the knowledge of realities—you, and only you, are the guide.
By you, Abū Isḥāq, guidance becomes clear;
 through you its branches and roots emerge distinct.
Whoever claims realisation apart from you
 is like one who allows what reason deems impossible…’

And he went on to say: ‘I studied the Book of Sibawayh with Abū ʿAlī al-Shalūbīnī.’