the well-known, numbered scholars and leading Imams of the religion. Each day—while fasting—he would engage in forty thousand tasbīḥ (utterances of “subḥān Allah,” declaring Allah’s perfection). He was the chief imam of Homs, and throughout the nights of Ramadan he led the tarāwīḥ prayer, completing one-third of the Qurʾān each night.
Al-Jūzajānī relates that he said:
“Whoever brazenly commits blameworthy acts under the pretext of seeking the Truth, Allah will turn the praises he receives into denunciation.”
Ibn Abī al-Dunyā transmits from him:
“There is no servant but that he has four eyes: two in his face with which he perceives the affairs of his dunyā (worldly life), and two in his heart with which he perceives the affairs of his ākhirah (Hereafter). When Allah intends good for a servant, He opens the two eyes that are in his heart so that he sees with them the concerns of his Hereafter—though it is unseen—and thus he believes in the unseen through the unseen. But when Allah wills otherwise for a person, He leaves his heart as it is; you observe him looking, yet he gains no benefit. Only when he looks with his heart does he profit.”
He also said: “The sight of the heart is from the Hereafter, while the sight of the two eyes is from this world.” He enjoyed many other virtues; may Allah Most High have mercy on him. (1)
ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd [ibn Abī Waqqāṣ al-Laythī (2): he transmitted numerous reports from his father and others. He was a notable Successor, famous and trustworthy.] (1)
ʿĀmir ibn Sharāḥīl al-Shaʿbī (3) likewise died this year, according to one opinion. [Al-Shaʿbī was from the clan of Shaʿb Hamdān; his kunya was Abū ʿAmr. He was the foremost scholar of Kūfa—an imam, a ḥāfiẓ of hadith, and a man of many disciplines. He met large numbers of Companions, narrated from them and from many of the Successors, and a number of Successors in turn narrated from him.
Abū Mijlaz said, “I have never seen anyone more versed in jurisprudence than al-Shaʿbī.”
Makhḥūl said, “I have not seen anyone more knowledgeable of the established sunnah than he.”
Dāwūd al-Awdī reported: al-Shaʿbī once said to me, “Stand here with me so that I may teach you some knowledge—indeed, it is the very essence of knowledge.”
I asked, “What will you teach me?”
He replied, “When you are asked about something you do not know, say: ‘Allah knows best,’ for that is sound knowledge.”]