of the Believers entered upon me, I said, “O man of radiant face! You have been charged with a most weighty matter. By Allah, I have never seen a countenance more handsome than yours. So if you are able not to blacken that face with even a single lash of the Fire, then do so.”

He replied, “Admonish me.”

I answered, “With what shall I admonish you? Here is the Book of Allah between its two covers—look at what He did with those who obeyed it and what He did with those who disobeyed it. I see people diving headlong toward the Fire, plunging into it with all their strength and seeking it with frantic eagerness. By Allah, had they pursued Paradise with the same zeal—or even with less—they would have attained it.”

He said, “Come back to me again.”

I replied, “Had you not summoned me, I would not have come; but if you profit from what you have heard, I will return to you.”

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath said: I heard Fudayl, during his final illness, say, “Show me mercy by virtue of my love for You, for nothing is dearer to me than You.”

I also heard him, while in pain, say, “Adversity has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful.”

And I heard him say, “Whoever feels estranged from solitude and seeks comfort in people will not be safe from ostentation. No ḥajj and no jihād is harder than restraining the tongue, and no one is more burdened with grief than the one who has imprisoned his tongue.”

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ziyād said: I often heard Fudayl say, “Guard your tongue, attend to your own affairs, know the age in which you live, and hide your dwelling-place.”

Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī said: Fayḍ ibn Isḥāq narrated to us; I heard Fudayl say, “I wish word would spread among the people that I had died, so that I would no longer be mentioned. When I hear the voices of the ḥadith scholars, I am so overcome with fear of them that I wet myself.”

Al-Dawraqī also said: Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ziyād narrated to us; I heard Fudayl say to the ḥadith scholars, “Why do you compel me to do something you know I detest—namely, narrating? If I were your slave and disliked you, it would be proper for you to sell me. If only I knew that, were I to hand over this cloak of mine…"