“It is only children who pass one another a rattle.”

It has been said that Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allah died in the year 273 AH. This, however, is of no consequence; the correct view is that he passed away in Muḥarram, 283 AH. It is also reported that he lived eighty years or more.

His namesake, the ascetic ḥadith scholar—

152 – Abū Ṭāhir Sahl ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Farrukhān al-Isfahānī *

was one of the reliable authorities. He travelled widely and studied under Sulaymān ibn Bint Shurahbīl, Ṣafwān ibn Ṣāliḥ, Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Sarī al-ʿAsqalānī, Ḥarmalah ibn Yaḥyā, and others of their rank.

Those who narrated from him include Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yazīd al-Zuhri, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ṣaffār, Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣaḥḥāf, Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Afrajah, and many others.

He was counted among the bearers of the proof, a man of great standing. It was also said that he was one of the abdāl—may Allah have mercy on him.

Abū Nuʿaym said, “I met his companions, and he was a man whose supplication was answered. The people of our town would turn to his prayers whenever calamities or tribulations befell them, and there are well-known accounts of his prayers being granted.

“As for his lofty spiritual state—his constant remembrance, witnessing, presence, and the stripping away of the soul’s cravings—that is famous and widely circulated. He was the first to carry…”