my face might have become darkened. I do not want to die in a place where people know me; I fear the earth would refuse to receive me, and I would be exposed. (1)
I also heard him say, “A section of my daily litany slipped by me, and I find myself unable to make it up,” (2) — meaning that all his hours were already absorbed.
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said, “Sarī was the first to make the language of monotheism openly heard in Baghdad and to speak about the sciences of inner realities. He is the imam of the Baghdadis when it comes to subtle spiritual indications.”
I add: Among those who kept his company were al-ʿAbbās ibn Yūsuf al-Shaklī and Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Jābir al-Saqaṭī.
He died in the month of Ramadan, in the year 253 AH.
Another report puts his death in 251 AH,
while a third says 257 AH.
66 – al-Ḥasan ibn Shujāʿ ibn Rajāʾ al-Balkhī (d.)
A ḥadith master, critic, imam, and exacting scholar—Abū ʿAlī al-Balkhī was one of the luminaries, blessed with vast knowledge and extensive travels.
He met Makkī ibn Ibrāhīm and his circle in Balkh.
He also studied with ʿUbayd Allah ibn Mūsā—his principal shaykh—Abū Nuʿaym, Abū Mushir al-Ghassānī, Yaḥyā al-Wuḥāḍī, Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam, Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī, Abū Ṣāliḥ the scribe of Layth, Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt, Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, Ibn Rāhwayh, and their peers.