Shaqīq said: “The believer is like a man who plants a date-palm, yet fears it may grow thorns; whereas the hypocrite is like a man who sows thistles, hoping they will yield dates—never so! (1)”
He also said: “Nothing is dearer to me than the guest, for his provision is upon Allah and the reward is mine.”
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwud reported: “Shaqīq ibn Ibrāhīm—who turned away from this world, yearned for the Hereafter, and was constant in worship—narrated to us … and he cited a hadith.”
Shaqīq said: “I learned humble dress from Sufyān, reverence from Isrāʾīl, devotion from ʿAbbād ibn Kathīr, and jurisprudence from Zufar.”
He also said: “The marks of repentance are: weeping over past sins, fearing to relapse into them, abandoning wicked companions, and keeping the company of the righteous. (3)”
And he said: “Whoever complains of an affliction to anyone other than Allah will never taste the sweetness of obedience. (3)”
Al-Ḥākim said: “Shaqīq arrived in Nīshāpūr with three hundred ascetics. The caliph al-Maʾmūn wished to meet him, but he refused.”
Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿd informed us; al-Irbilī informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Thābit informed us; ʿAlī ibn al-Khall informed us; Aḥmad ibn al-Maḥāmilī informed us; Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī narrated to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwud narrated to us; Shaqīq al-Balkhī narrated to us; Abū—