23 – ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me; Muḥammad ibn Bashīr conveyed the report and said: A man recited before Misʿar ibn Kidām:
Do not reply to the fool’s tirade—
except to return his greeting, and no more.
For if you rouse him, you rouse a rotting corpse;
its stench only worsens when you try to make it stir.