“…‘The purest thing a man can eat is what he earns with his own hands, and his child is part of his earnings.’ (1)

So use that money to shroud me. (2) If you can find a piece of cloth for ten dirhams that will cover my nakedness, do not pay fifteen. Spread my felt mat beneath my bier, cover it with my cloak, and give my water-pot to a poor person.

O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, these people have written down So-and-so’s opinion, whereas I have written the transmitted report. In their eyes I am off the path, and in my eyes they are off the path. The foundation of every duty rests on two statements: whatever Allah and His Messenger say, ‘Do,’ is an obligation that must be carried out; whatever Allah and His Messenger say, ‘Do not do,’ one must refrain from, and refraining from it is itself an obligation.

This is in the Qur’an and in the Prophet’s prescriptions; they recite it, yet they do not ponder it—love of this world has taken hold of them. (3)

I kept company with Muḥammad ibn Aslam for more than twenty years, and I never saw him perform two units of voluntary prayer in a place where I could see him except on Friday. (4)

I heard him swear time and again: ‘If I could perform a voluntary act where even my two recording angels could not see me, (5) I would do so, out of fear of showing off.’ (6) And he was