the final sitting (the tashahhud). When he reached him, he struck the skullcap, whereupon Aḥmad concluded the prayer, handed the cap to his son Ibrāhīm, and the boy carried it away. Someone who had witnessed the incident said to him, “Did you see what that man just did to you?” He replied, “Allāh.”

Among Qāsim’s aphorisms: “The summit of all deeds is to be content with Allah; scrupulous restraint is the backbone of the religion; hunger (1) is the marrow of worship; and one’s impregnable fortress is silence.”

Qāsim al-Juʿī also said, “I heard Muslim ibn Ziyād say, ‘It is written in the Torah: Whoever makes peace will remain safe; whoever abuses will be abused; and whoever seeks honor from those unworthy of it will end up in regret.’”

He further said, “Desires are the very breath of this world; whoever renounces desire has renounced the world. If you see a man given to dispute, know that he loves to be in charge.”

ʿAmr ibn Duḥaym said: “Qāsim al-Juʿī died in Ramadan of the year 248 AH.”

I say: The ascetic of that time in Damascus was this al-Juʿī; in Baghdad it was al-Sarī al-Saqaṭī; in Naysābūr, Aḥmad ibn Ḥarb; in Egypt, Dhū al-Nūn; and in Ṭūs, Muḥammad ibn Aslam.

Where today can one find men like these masters? Nothing fills my eye except dust—or those who lie beneath the dust.

23 – al-Karābīsī, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Yazīd
The erudite authority, jurist of Baghdad, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Yazīd