He is the well-known biographer of the Saints. One of the most eminent and oldest of Junayd’s pupils, he was profoundly versed in the various branches of Ṣúfiism and paid the utmost respect to the Shaykhs. He has many sublime sayings. In order to avoid spiritual conceit, he attributed to different persons the anecdotes which he composed in illustration of each topic. It is related that he said: “Trust in God is equanimity whether you find anything or no,” i.e., you are not made glad by having daily bread or sorrowful by not having it, because it is the property of the Lord, who has a better right than you either to preserve or to destroy: do not interfere, but let the Lord dispose of His own. Ja`far relates that he went to Junayd and found him suffering from a fever. “O Master,” he cried, “tell God in order that He may restore thee to health.” Junayd said: “Last night I was about to tell Him, but a voice whispered in my heart, ‘Thy body belongs to Me: I keep it well or ill, as I please. Who art thou, that thou shouldst interfere with My property.’” 59. ABÚ `ALÍ MUḤAMMAD B. AL-QÁSIM AL-RÚDBÁRÍ. He was a great Ṣúfí and of royal descent. Many signs and virtues were vouchsafed to him. He discoursed lucidly on the arcana of Ṣúfiism. It is related that he said: “He who desires (_muríd_) desires for himself only what God desires for him, and he who is desired (_murád_) does not desire anything in this world or the next except God.” Accordingly, he who is satisfied with the will of God must abandon his own will in order that he may desire, whereas the lover has no will of his own that he should have any object of desire. He who desires God desires only what God desires, and he whom God desires desires only God. Hence satisfaction (_riḍá_) is one of the “stations” (_maqámát_) of the beginning, and love (_maḥabbat_) is one of the “states” (_aḥwál_) of the end. The “stations” are connected with the realization of servantship (_`ubúdiyyat_), while ecstasy (_mashrab_) leads to the corroboration of Lordship (_rubúbiyyat_). This being so, the desirer (_muríd_) subsists in himself, and the desired (_murád_) subsists in God. 60. ABU ´L-`ABBÁS QÁSIM B. AL-MAHDÍ[98] AL-SAYYÁRÍ.