Abū Ḥafṣ al-Sāʾiḥ reported, through Abū Bishr:
“Kurz ibn Wabarah was among the most devoted worshippers of Allah. He gave up food until there was no more flesh on his body than on a sparrow. He would go many days without eating, and once he entered the prayer he never shifted his gaze right or left. He belonged to the lovers who are humbly submissive to Allah; the depth of that attachment overwhelmed him, so that when someone spoke to him he might not answer for a while, his heart being wholly absorbed in Allah and yearning for Him.”

Ibn Yamān transmitted from Sufyān, from Kurz, who said: “A servant is not truly a Qur’an-reciter until he has become indifferent to the dirham.”

ʿAmr ibn Ḥumayd al-Dīnavarī related—from a man of Jurjān, from his father: “In a dream I seemed to pass by the graves of the people of Jurjān. I found them sitting upon their graves, clothed in white. I asked, ‘People of the graves, what has happened to you?’ They replied, ‘We have been dressed in new garments because Kurz ibn Wabarah has come to join us.’ ”

I say: Such were the ascetics and worshippers of the early generations—people of fear, humility, tireless devotion and contentment. They kept clear of the world and its desires, and of the phrases later folk devised about fanāʾ (annihilation), maḥw (obliteration), iṣṭilām (extinction), ittiḥād (union) and the like, matters that the great scholars do not endorse. We therefore ask Allah for success, sincerity, and steadfast adherence to the prophetic way.

21 – ʿAṭāʾ al-Salīmī al-Baṣrī*
A devoted worshipper, counted among the younger Successors.
He met Anas ibn Mālik.
He heard hadith from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Jaʿfar ibn Zayd, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ghālib the ascetic.
Because he was preoccupied with spiritual discipline, he narrated very little.
Those who transmitted from him include Murajjaʿ ibn Wadāʿ, Ibrāhīm ibn Adham, Khulayد ibn Daʿlaj, and Ṣāliḥ