I heard Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn, the ḥāfiẓ, relate from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Darastinī that Abū Ḥātim knew the Greatest Name. When his son fell ill he strove not to invoke it, because one may not seek worldly gain through it. Yet when the illness became critical he grew anxious and used it in supplication; the boy recovered. Abū Ḥātim then saw in a dream: “I have answered you, but your son will leave no progeny.”
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān lived with his wife for seventy years without being granted a child; some even said he never touched her.
Al-Rāzī said: I heard ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Khwarizmī say: I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim say:
“We stayed in Egypt for seven months and never tasted a single broth. All our daylight hours were divided among the sessions of the shaykhs, and our nights were spent copying and collating.
“One day (1) a companion and I went to visit a shaykh, but were told he was ill. On the way we saw a fish that pleased us, so we bought it. When we reached home the time for another session arrived, and we could not prepare it, so we went off to the lesson. Three days passed before we returned; the fish was on the verge of spoiling, so we ate it raw, for we had no spare time to ask someone to roast it for us.
“Knowledge,” he added, “cannot be attained while the body is at ease. (2)”
Al-Khaṭīb al-Rāzī said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān made three journeys. The first was with his father in the years 255 and 256 AH; he then performed the pilgrimage and heard Muḥammad ibn Ḥammād in 262 AH. After that he travelled on his own to the coastal regions, Syria, and Egypt in 262 AH, and later to Isfahān in 264 AH, where he met Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb. (3)
I heard the preacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qazwīnī say: “If you pray with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān…"