78 — Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm and others narrated to us, saying: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd informed us: We visited Muhammad ibn Sūqa, and he said, “I shall relate to you a report that may benefit you, for it has benefited me. ʿAtāʾ ibn Abī Rabāh said to us: ‘My nephews, your predecessors disliked superfluous speech. They regarded all speech as superfluous except reciting the Book of Allah, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, or speaking about what you need for the livelihood you cannot do without. Do you deny the words: “Indeed, there are guardians over you, noble scribes” [al-Infitār: 11]; “One seated on the right and another on the left” [Qāf: 17]; and “Not a word does he utter without a vigilant observer ready beside him” [Qāf: 18]? Would any of you not feel ashamed if the record he had dictated during the early part of his day were unfolded before him and most of it concerned neither his religion nor his worldly life?’”