356 – My father narrated to us, from an elder of Quraysh, who said: Sufyān ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿUtbah said, “My father entrusted me to the maktab (elementary Qur’an school). When I reached fifteen years of age he called me and said:

‘My son, the allowances of childhood have now expired for you. Hold fast to goodness so that you may be counted among its people, and never abandon it altogether so that nothing of it remains. Let no one who is deluded about Allah deceive you by praising you for qualities you do not possess, for the same person who speaks well of you when pleased will speak ill of you when angry. Find comfort in solitude rather than in the company of wicked companions, and do not transfer the good opinion I have of you to someone else.’

He said, ‘My father’s words became a qiblah before my very eyes—I move within them but never move away from them. Only those who obey the scholars truly prosper through them.’”