and deed, will speak with wisdom; whereas whoever lets his whims rule him will speak innovation. The Exalted has said: “And if you obey him, you will be guided” (Qur’an 24:54).
I add: He also said, “Do not follow desire, lest it lead you away from the path of Allah” (Qur’an 38:26).
Abū ʿUthmān al-Ḥīrī said: “A man is not complete until his heart is the same whether he is withheld from or given, whether he is honoured or humiliated.”
He also said to Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥamdān, “Do you not relate that when the righteous are mentioned, mercy descends?” He replied, “Indeed.” Abū ʿUthmān said, “Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is the master of the righteous.”
Al-Ḥākim relates: Saʿīd ibn ʿUthmān al-Samarkandī, the worshipper, told me that he heard Abū ʿUthmān say—reporting from Allah: “Whoever seeks My nearness without first resolving to bear three things: first, casting off honour and shouldering humiliation; second, a heart at ease with going hungry for three days; third, that he feel no grief or concern except for his religion or the effort to rectify it” (1).
Al-Ḥākim: I heard Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Hāniʾ say: “When Yaḥyā ibn al-Dhuhlī was killed, Aḥmad al-Khujistānī (2) forbade the people to attend ḥadith gatherings, so no one dared to carry an inkwell, until al-Sarī ibn…"