644 — Muhammad ibn al-Husayn related to me: Yūsuf ibn al-Hakam related to me: Jaʿfar ibn Sīdān al-Azdī informed me, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Khurashī, who said:

I heard one of the scholars who had come to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—may Allah be pleased with him—say, “One who remains silent with knowledge is like one who speaks with knowledge.”

ʿUmar replied, “I hope that, on the Day of Resurrection, the one who speaks with knowledge will be in the better state of the two, for he benefits the people, whereas the other’s silence benefits only himself.”

They asked, “Commander of the Faithful, what then of the perils of speech?” At this, ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—wept bitterly.