al-Maṣṣīṣī, Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb al-Maqābirī, and many others; the last of them to die was al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd al-Balkhī.

Among those who narrated from him was Sufyān al-Thawrī—the most eminent of his teachers—and between his death and that of al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd there elapsed one hundred and forty years.

Abū ʿAmmār al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥurayth relates, from al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā:

“Fudayl ibn ʿIyāḍ had been a shāṭir, a highwayman who used to waylay travelers between Abiward and Sarakhs. The cause of his repentance was that he had become enamored of a slave-girl. While he was climbing a wall to reach her, he heard someone reciting, ‘Has the time not yet come for those who believe that their hearts should humble themselves…’ (Q 57:16). When he heard it he said, ‘Indeed, my Lord, the time has come.’

“So he turned back. Night overtook him and drove him to seek shelter in a deserted ruin where some travelers had halted. Some of them said, ‘Let us depart,’ while others said, ‘No, let us wait until morning (1), for Fudayl is on the road and will rob us.’

“I reflected and said to myself, ‘Here I am, roaming the night in sin while a group of Muslims fears me. I see that Allah has only brought me to them so that I might take heed. O Allah, I repent to You, and I make my repentance that I shall reside near the Sacred House.’”

Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Shāfiʿī said: I heard Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah say, “Fudayl is trustworthy.”

Abū ʿUbayd said that Ibn Mahdī remarked, “Fudayl was a righteous man, though he was not a ḥāfiẓ.”