- ʿUtbah al-Ghulām ibn Abān al-Baṣrī*
The ascetic, the humble, the God-fearing—ʿUtbah ibn Abān al-Baṣrī.
He was likened, for the depth of his sorrow, to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.
Riyāḥ al-Qaysī said, “He spent the night at my house, and I heard him in his prostration saying: ‘O Allah, resurrect ʿUtbah from the crops of the birds and the bellies of the beasts of prey.’”
Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn related: “ʿUtbah al-Ghulām came to us on campaign and said, ‘I saw in my sleep that I went to al-Maṣṣīṣah (1), joined the expedition, and was martyred.’ A man thereupon gave him his horse and weapons, saying, ‘I am ill; go forth on my behalf.’ They met the Byzantines, and he was the first to fall as a martyr.
Salamah al-Farrāʾ said: ‘ʿUtbah al-Ghulām was among the ascetics of Basra. He fasted perpetually, and he would retire to the coastal frontiers and to the graveyard.’
Abū ʿUmar al-Baṣrī reported: ‘All of ʿUtbah’s capital amounted to a single fils. He would buy palm fronds (2) with it, weave them, and sell them for three fulūs: one fils he would give in charity, one he would use for his supper, and one remained his working capital.’
It is said that his lower self once craved meat, so he put it off for seven years (3).
He also said, ‘I do not care for a man who fails to practice a trade (4).’