for the purity of his wording; the philosophers attended for the subtlety of his meanings; and the dialectical theologians for the reins of his knowledge—yet his discourse lay beyond their grasp and their learning.

Al-Khuldī said, “Among our shaykhs we never saw anyone in whom knowledge and spiritual state were joined as they were in al-Junayd.

He enjoyed an awe-inspiring state and copious learning: when you observed his spiritual condition you deemed it superior to his knowledge, yet when he spoke you judged his knowledge to outshine even his state.”

Abū Sahl al-Ṣuʿlūkī relates: “I heard Abū Muḥammad al-Murtaʿish say:

Al-Junayd said, ‘I was playing before al-Sarrī when I was seven years old and they began discussing gratitude.

He asked me, “Boy, what is gratitude?”

I replied, “That God not be disobeyed by means of His favors.”

He said, “I fear that your portion from God will be only your tongue.”

Al-Junayd added, “I have never ceased weeping over those words.”’”

Al-Sulamī reports: “My grandfather Ibn Nujayd (1) told us:

Al-Junayd would open his shop, go inside, lower the curtain, and perform four hundred rakʿahs of prayer.

And he said, ‘The highest form of arrogance is to behold your own self, and its lowest is for the mere thought of yourself—even for an instant—to cross your mind.’”

Abū Jaʿfar al-Farghānī said: “I heard al-Junayd remark:

‘The least harm in much speaking is that it removes the awe of the Lord—glorious and exalted is He—from the heart; and when the heart is stripped of awe, it is stripped of faith.’”

It was said that the inscription on al-Junayd’s signet ring read: “If you hope in Him, never feel secure from Him.”

And he said: “Whoever’s inner allusion is at odds with his outward conduct is a lying pretender.”