under Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī.”
He said, “Perhaps you mean the blue-garbed Hajjājī?”
I replied, “Indeed.”
He remarked, “No one more learned in fiqh has ever come to us from Khurāsān than he.” (1)

I heard Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Zāhid say, “In his age Abū ʿAlī was God’s proof against His creation.”

I also heard al-Ṣibghī say, “We knew nothing of dialectical debate and critical reflection until Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī arrived from Iraq.” (2)

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: “Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī met Abū Ḥafṣ al-Naysābūrī and Ḥamdūn al-Qaṣṣār. He was an authority in most of the sacred sciences, pre-eminent in every branch of them. Yet he set aside much of his learning and devoted himself to the science of the Sufis. He sat to teach and addressed them in the finest discourse on the faults of the soul and the maladies of deeds.” (3)

Despite his knowledge and excellence, he differed with Imām Ibn Khuzaymah on the questions of divine facilitation and abandonment, the definition of faith, and the lafẓ controversy (whether human utterance of the Qur’an is created). Because of this he was confined to his house and did not leave it until he died, enduring ordeals on that account. (4)

Among his sayings: “O you who sold everything for nothing and bought nothing with everything!” (5)

He also said: “Fie upon the distractions of this world when they come, and fie upon its regrets when they depart. A sensible person does not rely on anything that, if it approaches, becomes a preoccupation, and if it withdraws, becomes a source of remorse.” (6)