578 — Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd related to me; Mūsā ibn Ayyūb related to us; Damra related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Hamala, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Zakariyyā, who said: I heard him say, “I struggled to master silence for twenty years, yet I could not attain from it what I desired.” He would not allow anyone to backbite others in his gathering, and would say, “If you mention Allah, we shall assist you; but if you speak of people, we shall leave you.”