and Aḥmad ibn Naṣr al-Shadhaʿī, the Qur’an reciter; he read before him, conveying the reading he had taken from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Azraq according to the recitation of al-Kisāʾī.

Abū Yaʿlā al-Khalīlī said: “Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭṭān was a shaykh thoroughly learned in every discipline—Qur’anic exegesis, jurisprudence, grammar, and philology (1). He had three sons—Muḥammad, Ḥasan, and Ḥusayn—all of whom died in their youth (2).”

I heard a group of the elders of Qazwin say: “Abū al-Ḥasan—may Allah have mercy on him—never saw anyone his equal in merit (3) and asceticism. He fasted continuously for thirty years, breaking his fast with nothing but bread and salt, and his virtues are too numerous to count (4).”

Ibn Fāris said in one of his dictation sessions: “I heard Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭṭān, after he had grown old, say: ‘When I first set out on my travels I had memorised one hundred thousand hadiths, whereas today I cannot reliably recall even a hundred (5).’ I also heard him say: ‘I lost my eyesight, and I think I was punished for having spoken so much during my travelling days (6).’”

I say: By Allah, he spoke the truth. For, despite their generally sound intentions and sincere motives, they still feared excessive speech and displaying their knowledge and virtue—whereas today people speak at great length with