Shaykh Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman Hatim ibn ‘Unwan al-Aswam (q.s.) in Brief

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Imam Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Huzan al-Qushayri (r.a.) recorded, in his Risalah al-Qushayriyyah, Shaykh Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman Hatim ibn ‘Unwan al-Aswam (q.s.) was a great Sufi master of Khurasan.  Some say that his name was Shaykh Hatim ibn Yusuf al-Aswam (q.s.).  He was a disciple of Shaykh Abu ‘Ali Shaqiq ibn Ibrahim al-Azdi al-Balkhi (q.s.), and a teacher of Shaykh Abu Hamid Ahmad ibn Khadrawayh al-Balkhi (q.s.).  People say that he was not deaf, and that he only feigned deafness once, which explains his nickname, “al-Aswam”, “the Deaf”. 

Shaykh Abu ‘Ali Hasan ibn ‘Ali ad-Daqqaq (q.s.) said that, once, a woman came to Shaykh Hatim al-Aswam (q.s.), and asked him a question.  It so happened that as she was with him there came from her an embarrassing sound.  She was greatly mortified.  Shaykh Hatim al-Aswam (q.s.) told her, “Speak louder!” and put on a show of deafness.  The woman was very relieved and thought that he must have not heard the noise.  Since then, he came to be known as “al-Aswam”, “the Deaf”.  He carried on that charade in order to spare the blushes of one woman. 

Shaykh Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahman ‘Abdullah ibn Habib al-Sulami (q.s.) said, “I heard Abu ‘Ali Sa’id ibn Ahmad say, ‘I heard my father say, ‘I heard my uncle, Muhammad ibn al-Layts say, ‘I heard Hamid al-Laffaf say, ‘I heard Hatim al-Aswam say, ‘Not a single morning passes without Satan asking me, ‘What will you eat?’, ‘What will you wear?’, and ‘Where will you live?’  I answer him, ‘I shall eat death; I shall wear a shroud; and I shall live in a grave.’’’’’” 

According to the same chain of transmission, he was once asked: “Do you not desire anything?” 

He answered, “All I desire is that I live from morning to evening in good health.” 

Someone asked him, “Does this mean that not all of your days are healthy?” 

He answered, “My day is healthy, when I do not disobey God during it.” 

It is told that Shaykh Hatim al-Aswam (q.s.) said, “When I took part in a military expedition, a Turk seized me, threw me on the ground, and was about to slaughter me.  However, I had no concern for him. I was lying there and waiting for what Allah (s.w.t.) had in Store for me.  As he was groping for his knife, he was hit by a stray arrow that killed him.  I pushed him off and stood up.” 

Shaykh ‘Abdullah ibn Yusuf al-Iswbahani (r.a.) heard from Shaykh Abu Naswr Manswur ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Faqih (r.a.), who heard from Shaykh Abu Muhammad Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn Nuswayr (r.a.), who heard Shaykh Hatim al-Aswam (q.s.) say, “Whoever wants to follow our path must adopt four types of death: a white death, that is hunger; a black death, that is to tolerate torments from people; a red death, that is to oppose the urges of the soul in full sincerity; a green death, that is to put one patch upon the other over and over again.”