al-Sayqal, from ‘Abd al-A‘lā, from Nauf al-Bakkālī, said: “I saw ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib go out one night and gaze at the stars. He said, ‘O Nauf, are you arāqid (drowsy) or ramiq (vigilant)?’ I replied, ‘Rather, I am ramiq, O Commander of the Faithful.’ He said, ‘O Nauf, blessed are those who renounce the world yet long for the Hereafter. They are a people who have made the earth their carpet, its dust their mattress, its water their perfume, and the Qurʾān and duʿāʾ (supplication) their cloak and standard. They have modeled their worldly conduct on the path of al-Masīḥ (peace be upon him). O Nauf, Allah revealed to Jesus that he should pass by the Children of Israel and command them not to enter any of My houses except with pure hearts, humble gazes, and hands free of sin, for I will not respond to any of them—nor to any of My creation—if they wrong another. O Nauf, do not be a shaʿir (poet), an ʿarīf (clan-chief), a shurṭī (police officer), a jābī (tax-collector), or an ʿashār (tithe-collector), nor a keeper of ʿirbaṭa (the tanbur), of kūba (the drum), or of shāh (the chessboard). For Dāwūd (peace be upon him) rose at an hour of the night and said, ‘What an hour in which no servant calls upon his Lord except that his call is answered—unless he is an ʿarīf, shurṭī, jābī, ʿashār, or a musician.’” Amr ibn Qays narrated, from ʿUmar ibn Murrah, from ʿAlī: “Make the repositories of knowledge the mines of wisdom, the lamps of the night, the creases of garments, the renewers of hearts; thus you will be known among the people of heaven, hidden from the people of earth, and remembered before your Lord.” A similar report is also transmitted from Ibn Masʿūd. ʿĀṣim ibn Dumra, from ʿAlī, said: “Behold, the true faqīh (jurist) is he who neither despairs people of God’s mercy nor reassures them concerning His punishment, who does not license them to disobey God nor forsake the Qurʾān in favor of other pursuits. There is no good in worship without knowledge, nor in knowledge without understanding, nor in recitation without reflection.” Abū Bakr ibn Khuzaymah related: “ʿAlī ibn Ḥajar told us, from Yūsuf ibn Ziyād, from Yūsuf ibn Abī al-Mutayyid, from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, who said that ʿAlī remarked: ‘Be more attentive to the saying than to the deed; for a deed does not diminish through piety—how then could a deed accepted by God ever lessen?’” And from ʿAbd Khayr, from ʿAlī: “True good is not an increase of wealth or offspring, but an increase of knowledge and an enlargement of forbearance, and striving to outdo others in the worship of your Lord. If you do well, you praise God; if you err, you seek His forgiveness. There is no good in this world except for one of two men: one who commits sins and atones for them by repentance, or one who hastens to good deeds and advances in spiritual ranks. A deed done with piety never diminishes—how could that which is accepted ever diminish? A similar version is reported from Abū Dardāʾ.” Thābit ibn Abī Ṣafiyyah, from Abū al-Zāhir, said that ʿAlī stated: “Preserve five things from me—if you mounted camels in pursuit of them you would never catch them and would tire the camels before achieving them: Let no servant hope except in his Lord; let him fear none except his own sin; let no learner be ashamed to ask what he does not know; let no scholar be ashamed, when asked, to say, ‘God knows best’; and patience is to faith what the head is to the body—there is no faith for one who lacks patience.” (1) In manuscript A: read “he will gather you.” (2) In manuscript A: “he died.”