ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr al-Naysābūrī, al-Ḥīrī, the Sufi.
He was born in 230 AH in Rayy.
There he heard ḥadith from Muḥammad ibn Muqātil al-Rāzī and Mūsā ibn Naṣr. In Iraq he studied under Ḥumayd ibn al-Rabīʿ, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Aḥmasī, and a number of others, and he never stopped seeking out ḥadith and writing them down until the very end of his life.
Those who transmitted from him include the chief Abū ʿAmr Aḥmad ibn Naṣr, his two sons—Abū Bakr and Abū al-Ḥasan—Abū ʿAmr ibn Maṭar, Ismāʿīl ibn Nujayd, and many others.
Al-Ḥākim said: “He came to Nishapur for the company of the ustādh Abū Ḥafṣ al-Naysābūrī, and all of our shaykhs agree that Abū ʿUthmān’s supplication was answered; he was a meeting-place for worshippers and ascetics.”
He kept on listening, and he revered and exalted the scholars. He received from Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥamdān his Ṣaḥīḥ, compiled according to Muslim’s wording. Whenever a sunnah reached him, he would not pass it on at once; he would pause at it until he had put it into practice.
I say: For the people of Khurasan he is the counterpart of al-Junayd for the Iraqis.
Among his sayings: “Your delight in the world banishes the delight of Allah from your heart.” (1)
Ibn Nujayd said: I heard him say, “Never trust the affection of anyone who loves you only when you are faultless.”
Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān said: I heard him say:
“Whoever appoints the sunnah over himself, in word…"