Al-Nasaʾi said, “Ibrāhīm ibn Adham is reliable, trustworthy, and one of the foremost ascetics.”

Abu Nuʿaym (1) relates that he was the son of a king of Khurasan and that hunting was dear to him. Ibrāhīm said: “I once rode out and stirred up a fox—or perhaps a hare—when a caller cried out to me from the pommel of my saddle: ‘You were not created for this, nor were you commanded to do it!’ I dismounted at once and declared, ‘I desist, I desist; a warner from the Lord of all worlds has reached me.’ I returned home, set my horse free, went to one of my father’s shepherds, and took from him a woollen cloak and a mantle, handing him my own garments. Then I made my way to Iraq, where I worked for a few days, but I could not find earnings whose lawfulness was clear to me. I asked some of the elders about earning what is lawful, and they directed me to the lands of al-Sham. I reached Tarsus and spent some time there guarding orchards and reaping harvests.

He used to say: “I never tasted the joy of life except in Greater Syria; I flee with my religion from cliff to cliff, from mountain to mountain. Whoever sees me says, ‘He has lost his mind.’”

Thereafter he went into the desert, entered Mecca, kept company with Sufyān al-Thawri and al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyād, returned to Syria, and died there. He would eat only from the labour of his own hands—reaping, manual work, guarding orchards, and the like.

As for the story that he met a man in the wilderness who taught him the Supreme Name of Allah, whereupon he invoked Allah by it until he saw al-Khidr, who told him, “It was my brother Dāwūd who taught you the Supreme Name of Allah,” this was mentioned by al-Qushayri and Ibn ʿAsākir with an unsound chain. In another version al-Khidr says, “It was Ilyās who taught you the Supreme Name of Allah.”

Ibrāhīm said, “Purify your food, and it will not harm you if you neither stand in prayer at night nor fast by day.”

Abu Nuʿaym also transmits that his most frequent supplication was: “O Allah, move me from the humiliation of disobeying You to the honour of obeying You.”

Someone once told him, “Meat has become expensive.” He replied, “Make it cheap”—that is, do not buy it and it will become inexpensive.

Others report that a voice called out to him from above: “O Ibrāhīm, what is this frivolity? ‘Did you then think that We created you in vain and that you would not be returned to Us?’ [Al-Muʾminūn 23:115]. Fear Allah and take provision for the Day of Resurrection.” So he dismounted, renounced the world, and devoted himself to the work of the Hereafter.

Ibn ʿAsākir (2) narrates—with a chain that warrants scrutiny—the beginning of his story: “One day I was in a rooftop pavilion in Balkh (3) when an elderly man of dignified bearing and a handsome beard took shelter in its shade. He captured my heart, so I ordered a servant to bring him in. When he entered, I offered him food, but he refused. I asked, ‘From where have you come?’ He replied, ‘From beyond the river.’ I said, ‘Where are you heading?’ He answered, ‘To the pilgrimage.’ I asked, ‘At this time?’—it was the first or second day of Dhu al-Hijjah. He said, ‘Allah does whatever He wills.’”