“…I heard you, Abū Bakr, say when you were well: ‘Every saint who is without a miracle is a liar. So what is your miracle?’ He replied, ‘My miracle is that when the thought that crosses my mind in sobriety is compared with the thought that crosses it in my state of intoxication, neither departs from conformity with Allah.’

I say: Shiblī’s mind became light, so he was treated. He was the foremost authority among the Sufis of his time. His death coincided with that of the just vizier and ḥadith scholar ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā in the same year, 334 AH, in Baghdad.

280 – It was recorded by Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilya 10/367, and the compiler cited it through his chain in al-Aṣl. Its isnād is sound, for Ibn Ḥubaysh is trustworthy and firmly grounded; he died in 359 AH, as stated in Tārīkh al-Khaṭīb 3/86.

22 – Abū Muḥammad al-Barbahārī, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf, the leading Ḥanbalī authority in Baghdad (d. 329 AH).

He was a man of great stature; he studied under al-Marwazī and had many students and followers.

296 – He said: “Delving into the Lord is a newly-introduced practice, an innovation, and misguidance. Therefore one should not speak about Allah except with what He has described Himself. Concerning His attributes we do not ask, ‘Why?’ or ‘How?’. He knows the secret and what is even more hidden; He is over His Throne, having risen above it; His knowledge is in every place. The Qurʾān is the speech of Allah—His revelation and His light—and it is not created.” He then mentioned a lengthy passage.

Al-Barbahārī died in 329 AH.

281 – I say: Ibn al-ʿImād reproduced a large portion of it—about three pages—in al-Shadharāt 2/319–322.