a hundred hadith and he had given me a hundred lashes.” He used to say:

“This is knowledge that we received only from bearded men and elders; none but their like shall transmit it from us.”

Yahyā ibn Ma‘īn said: “No beardless youth ever hoped to accompany either me or Ahmad ibn Hanbal on the road.”

Abū ‘Alī al-Rūdhbārī said:

“Abū al-‘Abbās Ahmad ibn al-Mu’addib said to me: ‘Abū ‘Alī, where did the Sufis of our time acquire this familiarity with youths—even if they may come to no harm in many instances?’

“He replied: ‘Far from it! We have seen men stronger in faith than they who, upon seeing a youth approach, would flee from him as they would flee from a lion. Such things depend on the times when spiritual states overwhelm those experiencing them, and those states come under the sway of natural inclinations. How frequent the errors! How frequent the mistakes!’”

Al-Junayd ibn Muhammad said: “A man came to Ahmad ibn Hanbal with a handsome, beardless youth. Ahmad asked him: ‘Who is this young man?’ The man replied: ‘My son.’ Ahmad said: ‘Do not bring him with you again.’ Some of his companions reproached him for this, and Ahmad replied: ‘This is how we saw our teachers behave, and this is what they related to us about their predecessors.’”

Hasan ibn al-Rāzī came to Ahmad with a handsome youth and spoke with him for a while. When he was about to leave, Ahmad said to him:

“Abū ‘Alī, do not walk along the road with this youth.”

He replied: “Abū ‘Abd Allāh, he is my sister’s son.”

Ahmad said: “Even so. Do not let people incur sin on your account.”

Ibn al-Jawzī related through his chain of transmission from