He also said, “To act for the sake of people is an act of shirk—associating partners with Allah—while to abandon an act because of people is ostentation. Sincerity is that Allah spares you from both.”
On another occasion al-Rashīd remarked to him, “How very ascetic you are!” Al-Fudayl replied, “You are more ascetic than I, for I have renounced a world that is worth less than the wing of a mosquito, whereas you have renounced the everlasting Hereafter. Thus I have turned away from what perishes, and you have turned away from what endures. Whoever gives up a pearl is surely more ascetic than one who gives up a dung pellet.” A similar exchange is related from Abū Ḥāzim with Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.
He said, “If I possessed one supplication that I knew would be answered, I would devote it to the ruler, for the welfare of the flock depends on him; when he is upright, people and lands live in safety.”
He said, “When I disobey Allah, I notice its trace in the behaviour of my donkey, my servant, my wife, and even the mouse in my house.”
Concerning the Almighty’s words, ‘…that He may test you to see which of you is best in deeds’ (Hud 11:7; al-Mulk 67:2), he commented, “That means the deed that is most sincere and most correct: it must be done purely for Allah and in conformity with the practice of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”
[Among those who died this year were]
Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal;
ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb;
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Darāwardī;
ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿUmmī;
ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, the commander in Byzantine territory, who campaigned with al-Qāsim ibn al-Rashīd during the summer expedition;
Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān; and
Abū Shuʿayb al-Barāthiyy the ascetic (1). He was the first to settle in Barāthā (2), living in a small hut where he devoted himself to worship, and a woman from