Ibn al-Aʿrābī said, “He had a teaching circle in the congregational mosque of Baghdad; after him the circle belonged to Abū Ḥamzah al-Baghdādī.

Al-Musūḥī would not move beyond the knowledge of reaching God, acts of worship, spiritual intention, and inner states, steering clear of the sciences of gnosis.

Someone else said of him, “His speech was graceful; he was content, ascetic, and used to stay in a mosque.”

Al-Sulamī said: I heard Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Baghdādī relate to us—Jaʿfar al-Khuldī reported—“I heard Junayd say:

‘I once spoke with Ḥasan al-Musūḥī about a question concerning uns (intimacy)(1). He said to me, ‘Woe to you! Intimacy! Even if everyone beneath the sky were to die, I would feel no estrangement.’”

I say: al-Musūḥī died sometime after the year 260 AH.

219 – ʿĪsā ibn Shādhān al-Baṣrī, the cotton-seller * (D)

A ḥāfiẓ whose prodigious memory became proverbial.

He narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rajāʾ, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī, Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Suwayd, and their peers.

Those who transmitted from him include Abū Dāwūd, Abū ʿArūbah al-Ḥarrānī, ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mubashshir al-Wāsiṭī, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd, and others. He passed away long ago.

Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī said: I heard Abū Dāwūd remark, “I have never seen anyone with a stronger memory than Abū Jaʿfar al-Nufaylī.”

I asked, “Not even ʿĪsā ibn Shādhān?”

He replied, “Not even ʿĪsā ibn Shādhān.”