Yahya ibn Aktham said, “It has reached me that Ibn al-Mubarak was asked about al-ittibaʿ (true adherence). He answered, ‘Al-ittibaʿ is what Husayn ibn Waqid and Abu Hamzah are upon.’
ʿAli ibn al-Husayn ibn Shqiq reported: ʿAbd Allah [Ibn al-Mubarak] was asked about the imams who should be taken as exemplars. He named Abu Bakr and ʿUmar and continued listing them until he came to Abu Hamzah—who was still alive at the time.
Al-ʿAbbās ibn Muṣʿab al-Marwazī said, “Abu Hamzah’s prayers were answered.”
Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hakim narrated from Muʿadh ibn Khalid: “I heard Abu Hamzah al-Sukkarī say, ‘I have not eaten to satiety for thirty years—except when I had a guest.’”
Ibrāhīm al-Harbī transmitted from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shqiq who said:
“A neighbor of Abu Hamzah al-Sukkarī wanted to sell his house. Someone asked him, ‘For how much?’
He replied, ‘Two thousand for the house itself, and two thousand for the honor of living next to Abu Hamzah.’
When Abu Hamzah heard of this, he sent him four thousand and said, ‘Do not sell your house.’”
ʿAli ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shqiq and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rizmah stated: “Abu Hamzah died in 167 AH.”
Another said, “In 168,” but the first date is more reliable.
142 – Ibrāhīm ibn Adham ibn Manṣūr ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir al-ʿIjlī*
The exemplar, the Imam, the gnostic, the leader of the ascetics, Abū Isḥāq al-ʿIjlī—some said al-Tamīmī—of Khurasan, from Balkh, later resident of Syria.
His birth: