where did you learn that?’
He answered, ‘I went inside, asked my Lord, and He showed me the people assembled on the plain (1)!’

I (the author) say: I do not know this mu’adhdhin, and such a marvel is not unlikely for a saint of this stature, yet the question is whether the report is soundly established.

The ḥāfiẓ Abū Saʿīd al-Naqqāsh states in his book “Classes of the Sufis”: “Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī was the teacher of Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz and Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Masrūq. He wrote down and transmitted a large body of hadith.”

I say: Whenever you see a Sufi engrossed in hadith, trust him; but if you find him distant from hadith, place no hope in him—especially when his ignorance of hadith is coupled with an attachment to the trifles (2) of the Sufis and the cryptic symbols of the esoterics. We ask Allah for safety, just as Ibn al-Mubārak said:
“Has anything ruined the religion but kings,
and wicked scholars and its monks?”

Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz relates: I asked Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr about the essence of poverty, and he said, “Composure whenever nothing is at hand, and generosity whenever anything is available.”

It is also reported from Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr that he was asked, “If I eat and become full, how do I show gratitude for that blessing?” He replied, “Pray until nothing of it remains inside you.”

Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muṣʿab said: Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Ṭūsī narrated to us, “I saw the Prophet ﷺ in my sleep and said, ‘Instruct me in something to which I may hold fast.’ He replied, ‘Adhere to certainty (3).’”

And from him it is related that he said, “The ignorant person is recognized by flaring up over nothing and by divulging secrets…"