Al-Nasāʾī declared him reliable.
He died in 240 AH, in Marw.
In that same year Suwayd ibn Saʿīd al-Harawī al-Hadathānī also passed away; al-Hadathānī was the elder and the better-known of the two, whereas “the Shāh” was the more reliable and precise.
96 – al-Anṭākī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn ʿĀṣim *
The Imām, exemplar, and preacher of Damascus, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn ʿĀṣim al-Anṭākī, the ascetic.
He narrated from Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍarīr, Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn, al-Haytham ibn Jamīl, and Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥunaynī.
Those who narrated from him include Aḥmad ibn Abī Ḥawārī, Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī, Maḥmūd ibn Khālid, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Dimashqī, and others.
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī said, “I met him in Damascus; he was devoted to preaching and asceticism.”
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said, “Aḥmad ibn ʿĀṣim’s kunya was Abū ʿAlī—some said Abū ʿAbd Allāh—and he was a contemporary of Bishr al-Ḥāfī and Sarī al-Saqaṭī.”
People used to say, “He is the spy of hearts.”
Aḥmad ibn Abī Ḥawārī recounted: “I heard Aḥmad ibn ʿĀṣim say,
‘When dealings are entrusted to the heart, the limbs find rest—aha! (1) an easy, cool booty.’”