He was a companion of al-Junayd ibn Muḥammad and other leading masters of the Sufis, and he remained in Mecca until he died there in the present year.
Among his beautiful sayings is the following:
“The deserts of this world are crossed on foot, while the deserts of the Hereafter are crossed with the heart.” (1)
Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Saʿīd ibn Abān (2), Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḍabbī, the judge, al-Maḥāmilī, was a Shāfiʿī jurist and ḥadith scholar.
He heard an immense number of traditions and met some seventy men who had been pupils of Ibn ʿUyaynah. He narrated from many of the imams, and al-Dāraqutnī and a host of others narrated from him. About ten thousand people would attend his teaching circle. He was truthful, devout, a jurist and ḥadith expert. He held the judgeship of Kūfa for sixty years, after which the jurisdiction of Fārs and its provinces was added to him. Later he asked to be relieved of all these posts, withdrew to his home, and confined himself to reciting ḥadith.
He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of this year at the age of ninety-five—may Allah have mercy on him.
He once debated a Shiʿi in the presence of certain notables. The Shiʿi began enumerating ʿAlī’s feats at Badr, Uḥud, the Trench, Khaybar, and Ḥunayn, praising his valor. Then he said to al-Maḥāmilī, “Do you acknowledge these?”
Al-Maḥāmilī replied, “Yes; but do you know where al-Ṣiddīq was on the Day of Badr? He was with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, in the shelter, taking the place of a commander who is shielded just as the Prophet himself was shielded, while ʿAlī was out in single combat. Had ʿAlī been routed or killed, the army would not have broken because of him.” The Shiʿi was silenced.
Al-Maḥāmilī then added, “Moreover, those who transmitted to us the rites of prayer, zakāh, and wuḍūʾ after the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, put him—who owned neither wealth, slaves, nor a clan to defend him—at their head. They did so because they knew he was the best of them.” The Shiʿi was again left speechless. (4)
ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Sahl (5), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ṣāʿigh, was one of the ascetic worshippers renowned for their extraordinary graces.