say, “Four men in this world strove with all their strength to seek what is lawful, and nothing but the lawful ever entered their bellies: Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, Shuʿayb ibn Harb, Yusuf ibn Asbat, and Sulayman al-Khawwās.
ʿAbd Allah ibn Khubayq said: I heard Shuʿayb ibn Harb declare, ‘Over ten days I ate one meal and drank one swallow.’
Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ṣūfī said: I heard Abū Hamdūn al-Ṭayyib ibn Ismaʿil recount: ‘We went to al-Madāʾin to visit Shuʿayb ibn Harb. He was sitting on the bank of the Tigris, having built himself a small hut. A loaf of bread hung from a strap beside a water-jug; each night he would take one loaf, soak it in the jug, and eat it. He indicated with his hand like this to show that Shuʿayb was nothing but skin and bone (1).
Shuʿayb then said, “I still see flesh here. By Allah, I will work to melt it away until I enter the grave with my bones rattling—am I saving fat for worms and serpents?”
When this remark reached Aḥmad [ibn Ḥanbal], he said, “Shuʿayb ibn Harb imposed great restraint upon himself out of scrupulous piety” (2).
Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Madāʾinī said: Shuʿayb died in Mecca in 196 AH.
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā and others said: rather, it was in 197 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.