, and forbid what is wrong. He journeyed in quest of hadith through far-off provinces and widely scattered lands. He had partitioned the night into three equal parts: one-third for sleep, one-third for writing, and one-third for reading. Someone saw him in a dream (1) after his death and asked, “Did you attain what you were seeking?” He replied, “Indeed, by Allah. We are in the company of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and I have presented my compilations on hadith to him, and he has accepted them.”

Abu Bakr ibn al-Haddad (2), the Shafi‘i jurist—his full name is Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Abu Bakr ibn al-Haddad—was among the leading imams of the Shafi‘i school. Al-Nasa’i narrated from him and said, “I am content to take him as a proof between me and Allah—Exalted is He.”

Ibn al-Haddad was a jurist well versed in subsidiary rulings, a hadith scholar, a grammarian, and eloquent in expression, with keen insight into the branches of the law. He authored a work on that subject arranged in an unusual manner. He served as judge in Egypt as the deputy of Abu ʿUbayd ibn Harbawayh (3), and we have mentioned him in Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyyah.

Abu Yaʿqub al-Adhruʿi (4): Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashim ibn Yaʿqub ibn Ibrahim al-Nahdi. Ibn ʿAsakir said: “He was from Adhruʿat, a town in al-Balqaʾ, one of the trustworthy and devout servants of Allah. He travelled, narrated hadith from a number of shaykhs, and others narrated from him.” Another scholar said, “He was among the foremost people of Damascus in worship and knowledge” (5).

Ibn ʿAsakir relates several reports that attest to his piety and the extraordinary states granted to him. Among them he said: “I asked Allah to take away my sight, and I went blind; but when purification became too difficult, I asked Allah to restore it, and He returned it to me” (6). He died in Damascus this year—344 AH—a date Ibn ʿAsakir confirmed. He was past ninety years of age.