al-Zubayr.

I said, “Had you seen him, you would never have seen anyone who conversed privately with his Lord or prayed as he did.” (1)

Habīb ibn al-Shahīd narrated, on the authority of Ibn Abī Mulaykah:
“Ibn al-Zubayr would practice continuous fasting for seven consecutive days, and on the morning of the seventh he was the strongest among us.” (2)

I say: Perhaps the prohibition of wiṣāl (continuous fasting) had not reached him (3); after all, the Prophet ﷺ is compassionate and merciful toward the believers. Whoever fasts without a break and takes starvation to extremes upsets his constitution and becomes ill-tempered; following the Sunnah is therefore preferable. Even so, for all his authority, Ibn al-Zubayr belonged to a class of his own in worship.

Ishāq ibn Ṭāriq informed us—ibn Khalīl informed us—Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad informed us—al-Ḥaddād informed us—Abū Nuʿaym informed us—Abū Ḥāmid ibn Jabalah informed us—Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us—Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī narrated to us—Abū ʿĀṣim, from ʿUmar ibn Qays, who said:
“Ibn al-Zubayr had one hundred servants, and he would speak to each of them in a different language. If you looked at him in matters of the Hereafter you would say, ‘Here is a man who has no desire for this world, not even for the blink of an eye.’ But if you looked at him in worldly matters you would say, ‘Here is a man who has no concern for Allah, not even for the blink of an eye.’” (4)

Mujāhid said, “When Ibn al-Zubayr stood for prayer he was like a motionless tree-trunk,” and he related—