Al-Khaṭīb (1) relates that Abū ʿUthmān was once asked, “Which of your deeds do you consider the most promising for your salvation?” He answered:

“When I reached maturity in al-Rayy, my family kept urging me to marry, but I refused. Then a woman came to me and said, ‘Abū ʿUthmān, I love you with a passion that has robbed me of sleep and peace. I beg you by the Turner of hearts [and I beseech Him through you] (2) to marry me.’

“I asked her, ‘Do you have a guardian?’ She replied, ‘Yes.’ I brought him, witnesses were summoned, and I married her. When we were alone I discovered that she was blind in one eye, lame, and physically disfigured. I said, ‘O Allah, to You belongs all praise for what You have decreed for me.’ My family (3) reproached me for marrying her, yet I only increased [in dutifulness and] (4) honor toward her. At times she would keep me with her and prevent me from attending certain gatherings; it felt as though I were sitting on burning coals, but I never let her sense that. I lived that way for fifteen years, and I place my greatest hope in having safeguarded the love she bore me in her heart.

Samanūn ibn Ḥamzah (5)—some say Ibn ʿAbd Allah—was one of the Sufi elders. His daily regimen comprised five hundred rakʿahs, and he called himself “the Liar” because of his claim in the verse (6):

I have no share in anyone but You;
so test me, then, however You wish.

He was afflicted with urinary retention (7) and would go around the elementary schools saying to the boys, “Pray for your uncle, the Liar.” He spoke forcefully about the ordeal, and although he suffered obsessive thoughts at the end of his life, his discourse on divine love remained as sound as ever.

Ṣāfī al-Ḥaramī (8) was among the foremost commanders of the Abbasid state and a leading figure during the reign of al-Muqtadir. On his death-bed he declared that his servant al-Qāsim held nothing that belonged to him. Yet when he died, al-Qāsim brought to the vizier one hundred thousand dinars and seven hundred twenty gold-studded belts, whereupon the servant retained his master’s post and rank.

Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (9), Abū Yaʿqūb al-ʿIbādī—so named after the tribes of al-Jazīrah—was a physician, the son of a physician. He and his father composed many works in the field, and his father translated the writings of Aristotle and other Greek sages. Isḥāq died in this year.