are among those people.’ Then he and the shaykh both fainted, while Zāfir stood looking at the two of them. Shortly afterward Fudayl came out; we rose, but the shaykh was still unconscious.

Sahl ibn Rāhawayh said: I asked Ibn ʿUyaynah, ‘Do you not see that Fudayl’s tears are hardly ever dry?’ He replied, ‘When the heart is wounded, the eyes become moist.’

Al-Aṣmaʿī said: Fudayl once saw a man complaining to another man and said, ‘Sir! Are you complaining about the One who shows you mercy to someone who will show you no mercy?!’

Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī related: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṭākī told us: ‘Fudayl and Sufyān al-Thawrī met and began to remind one another; Sufyān’s heart softened and he wept, then said, “I hope this gathering will bring us mercy and blessing.” Fudayl replied, “But I, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, fear it may prove more harmful to us than beneficial. Did you not select the finest of your words, and I the finest of mine, so you adorned yourself for me and I adorned myself for you?” Sufyān wept and said, “You have revived me; may Allah give you life.” ’

Al-Fayḍ reported that Fudayl said to me: ‘If someone were to say to you, “O pretender!” you would grow angry and take it badly—yet what he says may well be true. You have dressed yourself up for the world, affected piety, shortened your garments, refined your appearance, and restrained your harm so that people will say, “Abū So-and-so is a worshipper; how fine his comportment.” Then they honour you, look up to you, seek you out, and bring you gifts—like the suṭūq dirham (1), which not everyone recognises; once it is scraped, it turns out to be mere copper underneath.’

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashʿath said: I heard Fudayl say, ‘It has reached me that the scholars of earlier times…’