his ablution thereafter. He suffered from dysentery. When the throes of death arrived he said, “String my bow for me.” They strung it, and he grasped it and died while still holding it, intending to shoot it at the enemy. May Allah have mercy on him and honor his resting place.
Abu Saʿid ibn al-Aʿrabi said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Yazid al-Ṣāʿigh narrated to us: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say: I heard al-Sarī ibn Ḥayyān (1) say—Sufyān was much taken with him—
The world denied them food, so they denied themselves as well, (2)
And thus has the God-fearing man ever been bridled against worldly ease.
A clansman of Tayyiʿ—Dāwūd—is among them, and Misʿar too;
Among them are Wahīb and the noble ʿArīb son of Adham.
In Ibn Saʿīd you have an exemplar of piety and sound judgment,
And in the heir of al-Fārūq truthfulness placed foremost.
Al-Fuḍayl with his son suffices you among them,
And Yūsuf, who spares no effort to rise.
Those are my comrades and the people of my affection;
May the Lord of Majesty send blessings and peace upon them.
No lowly lineage can harm the one who fears Allah, (3)
For the God-fearing have always been the most honored and exalted.
Piety ever discloses itself upon a youth
When pure piety grants him a smiling visage of honor. (4)
Al-Bukhārī narrated in the Book of Manners (5) from Ibrāhīm ibn Adham, and al-Tirmidhī cited in his Jāmiʿ a muʿallaq hadith on wiping over leather socks (6).
As for Dāwūd al-Tāʾī (7): he is Dāwūd ibn Nuṣayr al-Tāʾī, Abū Sulaymān al-Kūfī, the jurist and ascetic; he studied jurisprudence under
(1) In manuscripts B and H and in Hilyat al-Awliya the name appears, whereas it is omitted in Q. In Tarikh Ibn Asakir it reads “Sami‘tu al-Sari ibn Jumkan” (“I heard al-Sari ibn Jumkan”), and I found no biographical entry for him.
(2) Q reads “fakhafu” (they feared), whereas the reading confirmed in B and H is the correct one.
(3) B reads “yusāl bisabhi,” H reads “yudad sabhihi,” and Tarikh Ibn Asakir reads “nusāl asinatin”; the reading preserved in Hilyat al-Awliya is the established one.
(4) B, Q, and Tarikh Ibn Asakir read “maysama,” whereas H and Hilyat al-Awliya confirm the alternative reading; the narrative and accompanying poetry appear in Hilyat al-Awliya (vol.6, p.375) and Tarikh Ibn Asakir (vol.6, p.349).
(5) Kitab al-Adab al-Mufrad by al-Bukhari, p.428, hadith no.1253, in which al-Bukhari narrates from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-‘Amri via Ibrahim ibn Adham, recounting his visit to Yahya ibn Hasan al-Bakri.
(6) Jami‘ al-Tirmidhi no.94, in the chapter on purification: the section on wiping over the khuffayn (leather socks) presented as a mu‘allaq hadith; it is also recorded in al-Tirmidhi’s Musnad, nos.671 and 612. The hadith is authentic.
(7) His biography appears in: Tabaqat Ibn Sa’d (vol.6, p.367); Al-Tarikh al-Kabir (vol.3, p.240); Al-Ma‘arif (p.515); Mashahir ‘Ulama’ al-Amsar (p.168); Hilyat al-Awliya (vol.7, p.335); Tarikh Baghdad (vol.8, p.347); al-Risala al-Qushayriyya (vol.1, p.81); Al-Ansab (vol.8, p.306); Manaqib al-Abrar by Ibn Khumays (p.48); al-Mukhtasar by Ibn Khumays (p.45); Sifat al-Safwa (vol.3, p.131); al-Kamil by Ibn al-Athir (vol.6, p.50); Wafayat al-A‘yan (vol.2, p.259); Tahdhib al-Kamal (vol.8, p.455).