and I hope thereby to win a dwelling—a settled home that delights the eyes of those who live in it. (1)
Allah will never unite the people of denial with those who confess their faith: one man is saved by his belief, while the other returns laden with his own loss; this one will enjoy bliss in a Garden, while that one will lie in the depths of its flames. (2)
From the poetry of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣūrī, may Allah Most High have mercy on him:
Say to the man who defies the hadith and spends his days censuring its people and its claimants:
“Do you speak thus on the basis of knowledge? Clarify it for me. Or is it out of ignorance?—for ignorance is the habit of the boor.
Shall those be blamed who safeguarded the religion from nonsense and deception?
To their words and to what they have transmitted every scholar and jurist must at last return.”
The cause of his death—may Allah have mercy on him—was that he underwent cupping; his hand swelled, for, as has been reported, the lancet of the blood-letter had been poisoned for someone else, but by mistake it was used on him. By Allah’s permission and decree that became the means of his demise. He was carried to the bīmāristān and died there on Wednesday, the last day of Jumādā al-Ākhirah of this year. He was buried in the cemetery of the congregational mosque of the city, having passed slightly over sixty years of age. I ask Allah, exalted is He, to show mercy to us and to him through His grace and bounty.
[Then the year 442 AH began.]
In that year:
• The sultan Tughr il Beg captured Isfahān after a siege of one full year. He moved his stores there from Rayy and made the city his place of residence. He demolished a section of the wall, saying, “Only those whose strength is feeble need a wall; my fortress is my army and my sword.” Abū Manṣūr Qaramarz (3) ibn ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah Abū Jaʿfar ibn Kākūyah had been inside; he expelled him and granted him some of its territories as a fief.
• Al-Malik al-Raḥīm marched to Ahwāz; the forces of Fārs obeyed him, and he took possession of ʿAskar Mukram (4).
• The Khārijites seized ʿUmān, destroyed the governor’s residence, and captured Abū al-Muẓaffar ibn Abī Kālījār.
• With the permission of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Mustanṣir, Bedouin tribes entered the lands of Ifrīqiyyah. Lengthy wars then broke out between them and al-Muʿizz ibn Bādīs, and for several years they spread corruption throughout the land.