Shaykh al-Kharraz

At his house in the village he had a well, the water from which he used to perform his ritual ablutions. We noticed that there was, next to the well, a high fruit-bearing olive tree with a stout trunk. One of our companions asked him why he had planted the tree in such a place, where it restricted access to the well. Then he looked up at us, his back being bowed with age, and replied that, although he had been brought up in the house, he had not noticed the tree till then; such was his preoccupation with his inner state.

Whenever any of us entered his house we found him reading the Quran; he did not read any other book till the day he died. This Shaykh had a black cat which used to sleep in his lap and which no one else was able to hold or fondle. He once told me that God had made the cat a means by which to recognize the Saints. He explained that the apparent shyness in her was not an inborn trait, for God had made her very joyful in the company of God’s Saints. I myself saw her rub her cheek against the legs of certain visitors and flee from others. One day our Shaykh, Abu Jafar al-Ureybi visited this Shaykh for the first time. When he arrived, the cat happened to be in another room. However, before he had had the chance to seat himself, the cat came in and looked at him, whereupon she opened her paws, embraced him and rubbed her face in his beard. Then Abu al-Hajjaj rose to receive him and seated him but said nothing. afterwards he told me that he had never seen the cat behave in this way with anyone else and that she had continued in that way the whole time he was there.

One day while I was with the Shaykh at a gathering, a man came to him who was afflicted with a terrible pain in his eyes, so that he cried out from the pain like a woman in labor. As he entered the house his screams disturbed those present, and the Shaykh himself turned pale and began to tremble. Then the Shaykh raised his hand in blessing and laid it on his eyes, whereupon the pain ceased. Then the man lay prostrate like one dead. Finally, he got up and left the house with the others, in perfect health.