He said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn remarked, “Whoever bursts into laughter spits out a mouthful of knowledge.” (1)

Through the same chain: Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Jārūd narrated to us; Abū Saʿīd al-Kindī narrated to us; Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth narrated to us, from Ḥajjāj, from Abū Jaʿfar, from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, who said:
“When the body never falls ill, it grows arrogant, and there is no good in a body that becomes arrogant.” (2)

It is also related from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn that he said, “Losing one’s loved ones is a form of exile.”

He used to pray: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You lest my public face appear pleasing in the sight of onlookers (3) while my inner state is ugly in Your hidden gaze. O Allah, just as I have done wrong and You have still shown me kindness, then if I relapse, let Your kindness return to me.” (4)

Zayd ibn Aslam said: Among the supplications of ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn was: “O Allah, do not leave me to myself, for I would be powerless; nor leave me to created beings, for they would neglect me.” (5)

Ibn Abī Dhīb reported from al-Zuhrī: “I asked ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn about the Quran.” He replied, “It is the Book of Allah and His Speech.” (6)

Abū ʿUbaydah narrated—from Ibn Isḥāq al-Shaybānī, from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAwf—who said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn said, “A man once came to me and said, ‘I have come to you for a need; I am neither on Hajj nor ʿUmrah.’ I asked, ‘What is it?’ He answered, ‘I came to ask you: when will ʿAlī be resurrected?’ I said, ‘By Allah, he will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection—and at that moment he will be concerned with his own soul.’”