103 – Salm ibn Sālim al-Balkhī, Abū Muḥammad*—
an ascetic and exemplar, Abū Muḥammad.
He taught in Baghdad, transmitting from Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, Ibn Jurayj, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, and Sufyān al-Thawrī.
Those who narrated from him include: Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā al-Farrāʾ, Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭanafisī, Saʿdān ibn Naṣr, and others.
Abū Muqātil al-Samarkandī said, “In his day Salm al-Balkhī was like ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in his own age.” (1)
Ibn Saʿd said, “He was heeded and commanded what is right. Hārūn al-Rashīd summoned him and imprisoned him; when al-Rashīd died he was released. He was a Murjiʾ and weak.” (2)
Al-Khaṭīb remarked, “He is noted for worship and asceticism, and he was a Murjiʾ.”
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Luʾluʾī said, “I saw Salm ibn Sālim spend forty years without ever lifting his head toward the sky; he was never seen eating during the day, nor was he ever seen with a mattress.” (3)