and this young man used to pursue knowledge in the gatherings of the shaykhs. When word reached him of what Ibn Kulayb had said about him, he became ashamed before people and shut himself up in his house, refusing to meet anyone. Ibn Kulayb’s passion for him only intensified until he fell gravely ill as a result; people came to visit him, and among the visitors was one of the shaykhs—one of the learned men—who asked about his sickness. He replied, “You know my ailment and its cure. If Aslam would visit me and cast one glance at me—and I at him but a single glance—I would recover; otherwise I am doomed.”

The shaykh judged it advisable to go to Aslam and ask him to visit the patient just once in secret. He persisted with him until Aslam agreed. They set out together, but when they entered Ibn Kulayb’s alley and quarter the youth’s demeanor changed and he was too shy to go in. He said to the scholar, “I will not enter. He has mentioned me and broadcast my name; this is a place of suspicion and reproach, and I do not wish to frequent the haunts of suspicion.” The shaykh pressed him with every argument, but he refused. The shaykh said, “He will certainly die; if you enter you will give him life.” Aslam replied, “Then let him die; I will not enter a place that angers Allah and provokes His wrath.” He refused to enter and went back home.

The shaykh went in to Ibn Kulayb and told him what had happened. Ibn Kulayb’s servant had already been in earlier and given him the glad news that Aslam was coming, and he had rejoiced greatly. When he became certain that Aslam had turned back, his speech grew confused and he was internally agitated. He then said to the shaykh, “Listen to me, servant of Allah, and remember what I say,” and he began to recite:

“O Aslam, comfort of the ailing,
Have mercy on the wasted, love-struck soul;
Your union is sweeter to my heart
Than the mercy of the majestic Creator.”

The shaykh said to him, “Woe to you! Fear Allah the Exalted; what a dreadful thing this is.” He answered, “It is as you have heard.”

The shaykh left him, but had not reached the middle of the alley when he heard the wailing and the death cry: Ibn Kulayb had left this world.

This is a disgrace most appalling, a bald enormity, a calamity most dire. Had the leading imams not recorded it, I would never have mentioned it; yet in it is a lesson for those of understanding and a reminder to people of insight: to ask Allah for His mercy and His gentleness toward them, to seek refuge in Him from trials both open and hidden, to implore Him for a good ending, and to keep them firm upon goodness, Islam, and the sunnah at the time of death—indeed, He is Most Generous, Bountiful.

Al-Ḥumaydī said: Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad recited to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Tamīmī recited to me, from Aḥmad ibn Kulayb, that he presented Aslam with Thaʿlab’s book al-Faṣīḥ and wrote on it:

“This is al-Faṣīḥ,
A book of every graceful phrase.
I have given it to you willingly,
Just as I have given you my soul.”

Al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ⦗1⦘ ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shādhān ibn Ḥarb ibn Mihrān, Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān the cloth-merchant,