on his cheek. He then remained absorbed in thought while I fell asleep. When I rose at the break of dawn, the water vessel was still in his hand exactly as it had been. I said, “The dawn has broken.” He replied, “From the moment you handed me the vessel until now I have been reflecting on the Hereafter.” (1)

Yūsuf ibn Asbaṭ also related: Sufyān was asked about a legal question while he was in the middle of buying something. He said, “Leave me be, for my heart is with my dirham right now.”

Mūsā ibn al-ʿAlāʾ transmitted from Ḥudhayfah al-Marʿashī who said: Sufyān declared, “Leaving behind ten thousand dirhams for which Allah will call me to account is dearer to me than having to depend on people.”

Rawwād ibn al-Jarrāḥ said: I heard al-Thawrī remark, “In earlier times wealth was disapproved of, but today it is the believer’s shield.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Bāhilī said: A man once came to al-Thawrī to seek his advice about undertaking Hajj. He told him, “Do not travel with someone of higher status than yourself; if you match his spending it will harm you, and if he outspends you he will humiliate you.”

A man looked at him while there were dinars in his hand and said, “Abū ʿAbd Allāh, you keep these gold coins?” He replied, “Be quiet! Were it not for them, the rulers would have wiped their hands on us like a towel.”

The author says: Sufyān was a leading figure in asceticism, devotion, and fear of Allah; a leader in memorisation, in knowledge of traditions, and in jurisprudence. He feared no reproach when it came to Allah, and he was one of the imams of the religion. Any isolated issues in which he exercised personal reasoning have been overlooked. He had a slight Shiʿite inclination: he would list ʿAlī third in order (2). He also followed the practice of his homeland with regard to nabīdh (3). It is said that he later renounced every