and then he would strike me.

He said, “Before he could even form and complete the intention, I would already have run away.” He died in Rajab of this year and was buried beside the grave of Ibn Surayj (1).

Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Baqi ibn Manṣur (2), Abu Bakr al-Daqqāq, known as Ibn al-Khāḍiba (3).

He was famed for imparting knowledge, for the excellence of his recitation, his fine handwriting, and the reliability of his transmissions. He combined mastery of the Quran and hadith, and related abundantly from Abu Bakr al-Khatib and the pupils of al-Mukhlis.

He said: “When Baghdad was flooded, my house and books were submerged and I was left with nothing. I had to make a living by copying manuscripts, so that year I wrote Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim seven times. One night I fell asleep and dreamed that the Day of Resurrection had arrived, and someone was calling, ‘Where is Ibn al-Khāḍiba?’ I came forward and was admitted into Paradise. Once inside, I lay on my back, crossed one leg over the other, and said, ‘At last I have rested from copying.’ Then I awoke to find the pen still in my hand and the manuscript before me. May Allah have mercy on him.”

Abu al-Muẓaffar al-Samʿānī (4)—Manṣur ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad—the ḥāfiẓ from Marw.

He first studied jurisprudence with his father according to the school of Abu Ḥanīfah, then transferred to the Shafiʿi school. He learned under Shaykh Abu Isḥaq al-Shirazi and Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh, and [he had an outstanding command of many fields] (5). He authored al-Tafsīr, al-Intiṣār fī al-Ḥadīth, al-Burhān, al-Qawāṭiʿ fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh, al-Iṣṭilām (6), and other works. He preached in the city of Nishapur and used to say, “I have never memorised anything and then forgotten it.”

He was asked about the reports concerning the divine attributes and answered, “Adhere to the religion of the old women [and the schoolchildren].” When asked about the divine istiwāʾ he recited:

You have come to learn Saʿdā’s secret—
you will find me covetous of Saʿdā’s secret.
Saʿdā is the wish of every wisher—
she combines chastity with a radiant face.

He died—may Allah have mercy on him—this year and was buried in the cemetery of Bāb Ḥarb.