It has reached me through Jaʿfar ibn ʿAmr, Abū ʿUmar al-ʿUmari, that he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ once passed by a group of people from Banū Jumah. They spoke ill of him, and when the report reached him he went back to them while they were still sitting and said:

“O Banū Jumah, word has come to me of your reviling me and of your violation of what Allah has forbidden. From of old the ignoble have abused the noble—and people have detested them for it. By Allah, nothing holds me back from dealing with you except some verses that occurred to me; they alone have restrained me.”

One of them asked, “And what poetry has kept you from insulting us?” He replied:

By Allah, it is not for love of you that I left you be,
 but rather I esteemed my own soul above ignorance.

I drew away from you and said to my critic,
 “Leave me to forbearance; my reason has come to my aid.”

Grey hairs have mantled the back of my head, and when a man turns grey
 it befits him to weary of constant reproach.