98 – Shaqiq Abū ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Azdī al-Balkhī

He was an imam, an ascetic, the shaykh of Khurasan: Abū ʿAlī Shaqiq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Azdī from Balkh.

He accompanied Ibrāhīm ibn Adham.

He transmitted hadith from Kathir ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ubullī, Israʾīl ibn Yunus, and ʿAbbād ibn Kathir.

Among those who narrated from him were ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Yazīd Mardawaih, Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Mustamlī, Ḥātim al-Aṣamm, al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwud al-Balkhī, and others.

His narrations are few.

ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Shaqiq said, “My grandfather owned 300 villages, yet he died without even a shroud.

“His sword is still, to this day, an object with which people seek blessing. He once traveled to the land of the Turks as a merchant. There he entered upon a group of idol-worshippers and saw that their elder had shaved his beard.

“Shaqiq said to him, ‘This is falsehood; you have a Creator and Maker who is capable of everything.’

“The man replied, ‘Your actions do not match your words.’

“Shaqiq asked, ‘How so?’

“He said, ‘You claim that He is able to do all things, yet you have wearied yourself by coming all the way here to look for provision while your Provider is back there. That was the cause of my renunciation.’”