95 – Abū ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād al-Ṭāʾī related to us; Jabalah ibn Yūnus, the judge of Jarjarāyā, narrated to us; Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī narrated to us, from a shaykh of Baṣrah, who said:

“It was said to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib—may Allah ennoble his countenance—‘There is a man here who has lost his wits. Until now he was perfectly sound, and we think he must have committed a sin for which he imagines there can be no pardon; that is why he has ended up in the state you see.’

ʿAlī replied, ‘Bring him to me.’

When the man was brought in, ʿAlī said, ‘Listen carefully to what I am going to tell you: what your enemy has achieved against you by making you despair of Allah’s mercy is far graver than the sin you committed.’

The man exclaimed, ‘Ah!’—and then recovered his senses.