We could, in fact, name in every succeeding generation after that men of the same stature right up to our own time. Today the foremost authority among the hadith scholars is Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Qudāʿī al-Mizzī (1); the leading jurist is Qāḍī Sharaf al-Dīn al-Bārzī; as for the foremost Qur’an reciters, they are several scholars; the doyen of Arabic linguists is Abū Ḥayyān al-Andalusī; and the head of the devoted worshippers is Shaykh ʿAlī al-Wāsiṭī. Thus, there still remain traces of goodness among the people, and praise belongs to Allah.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related: “Sufyān stayed with us, and we used to sleep for most of the night, but once he was with us we hardly slept at all. When he came down with a stomach illness, I attended to him and left off the congregational prayer. I asked him about that, and he said, ‘Serving a Muslim for a single hour is better than the congregational prayer.’

“I asked, ‘From whom did you hear this?’

“He replied, ‘ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUbayd Allah narrated to me from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿah, from his father, who said: “To serve a sick Muslim for one day is dearer to me than attending congregational prayer for sixty years, during which I never once missed the first takbīr.”’

“When Sufyān’s illness dragged on, he began to exclaim, ‘O death, O death!’ Then he added, ‘I neither long for it nor pray for it.’

“When the throes of death approached, he wept and was distressed. I said to him, ‘O Abū ʿAbd Allah, what is this weeping?’ He answered, ‘O ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, it is because of the severity of what death has brought upon me. Death—by Allah—is intense.’

“I touched him, and he was saying, ‘The souls of the believers depart like beads of perspiration; so I am hopeful.’

“Then he said, ‘Allah is more merciful than a tender, compassionate mother; He is generous and bountiful. Yet how can I love meeting Him when I dread death?’

“I wept until I almost choked, concealing my tears from him, while he kept saying, ‘Ah … ah, from death!’

“ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: I never heard him groan or sigh except when he was losing consciousness. Then he said, ‘Welcome to the messenger of my Lord.’

“He fell into a faint, then became completely still until he relieved himself; he fainted again, and I thought he had breathed his last, but he recovered and said, ‘O ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, go…’