18 – Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said, “Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me; Yaḥyā ibn Isḥāq al-Bajalī and Ḥātim ibn Abī Ḥawtharah related to me, from Ibn Luhayʿah, from Qays ibn al-Ḥajjāj, who said:

My shayṭān (personal devil) said, ‘When I first entered you I was like deep-set roots, yet today I am inside you no larger than a sparrow.’

I asked, ‘Why is that?’ He replied, ‘You keep melting me away with the Book of Allah.’”