98 – Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to me; Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥakam transmitted from ʿAbd al-Salām, the freedman of Maslama ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, who said: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān said to Muḥammad ibn ʿuṭārid al-Tamīmī: “O Muḥammad, learn these verses from me and put them into practice:

If you keep pace with a fool the way he behaves,
then you are a fool like him, stripped of forbearance.

Should the ignorant feel safe from your own ignorance even once,
your honor becomes for them an easy spoil.

So do not expose yourself as a fool; treat him gently with patience,
and if patience proves too hard, sever relations altogether.

Confound him, masking both your restraint and your anger,
with a stance midway between open enmity and peace.

Then at times he will hope in you, at times he will fear you,
and in that space you will act with firm resolve.

But if ignorance is truly unavoidable, then enlist
other ignoramuses against him—for that too is decisive strength.”