the heresies descended upon him, yet he repelled them, and the world advanced toward him, but he refused it.
Allah has portrayed the leaders of the God-fearing in His words:
“We appointed from among them leaders who guided by Our command, because they were patient and were certain of Our signs.” (al-Sajda 32:24)
By patience one abandons sensual appetites, and by certainty one drives away speculative doubts.
He likewise says:
“And they enjoined one another to truth and enjoined one another to patience.” (al-‘Asr 103:3)
and His statement:
“Remember Our servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—men of strength and insight.” (Ṣād 38:45)
Along these lines, a mursal ḥadith from the Prophet ﷺ states: “Allah loves the discerning eye when doubts arise, and He loves the sound intellect when desires present themselves.”
(1) In manuscript (Ab) the two clauses are inverted: “the innovations—he rejected them; and the world—he renounced it.”
(2) Ibn al-Jawzi transmits this statement with its chain from Abu Umayr Isa b. Muhammad b. al-Nahhas al-Ramli al-Filastini in Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad, p. 173; Ibn Kathir likewise cites it in al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 10:336, giving him the kunya Abu Umar.
(3) Quran 32:24.
(4) Quran 103:3.
(5) Quran 38:45.
(6) The printed edition reads al-Basir (“the All-Seeing”).
(7) The author alludes to this report in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa, 20:58 and 28:44, without providing its isnad, and again in Darʾ Taʿarud al-Aql wa-l-Naql, 2:105 and 5:131, noting that al-Bayhaqi records it as a mursal narration. Al-Bayhaqi indeed includes it in al-Zuhd, p. 362, no. 952, and Abu Nuʿaym relates a similar wording in Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 6:199. Al-Iraqi remarks in al-Mughni, his source-critical notes on the Ihyaʾ, 4:388: “Abu Nuʿaym narrates it in al-Hilya from Imran b. Husayn, and it contains Hafs b. Umar al-Adani, whom the majority consider weak.” Al-Zubayri adds in Ithaf al-Sadah al-Muttaqin, 10:105, after quoting Iraqi: “The report is also found in al-Bayhaqi’s al-Zuhd, Abu Mutiʿ’s Amali, and Abu Masud b. Ibrahim al-Isbahani’s Kitab al-Arbaʿin with the wording, ‘when he came …’.”