Abu al-Bakhtari

It is narrated from Ata bin al-Sa'ib that he said: Abu al-Bakhtari was soft-hearted, and when he heard lamentation he would begin to weep.

It is narrated from Abu al-Bakhtari concerning the saying of Allah, "They took their rabbis and their monks as lords besides Allah" [Al-Tawbah: 31], that he said: Whatever forbidden thing those men told them to make lawful, they obeyed them in it, and likewise whatever Allah had made lawful they told them to make forbidden, they obeyed them in it. In this way these people worshipped them.

Abu al-Bakhtari said: "To be among a group who know more than I do is dearer to me than to be among people where I am the greatest scholar."

Abu al-Bakhtari said: "There are three things such that falling from the sky is dearer to me than being among those who have them: people who find speech of adornment and finery sweet and grow weary of the Qur'an, and a people who obey the creation in disobedience to the Creator," meaning the Kharijites and the people of Syria.

Ata bin al-Sa'ib said that Abu al-Bakhtari and his companions were such that when any of them heard someone praising him, or when self-admiration began to come over him, he would bend his shoulders and say: "I humble myself before Allah."

It is narrated from Abu al-Bakhtari that he said: The earth feels the absence of the believer, and the plots of land adorn themselves for the believer when he intends to pray.