10 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; Abū Mālik al-Janabī narrated to us; from Ṣabāḥ al-Muzanī; from Muḥammad ibn Sūqah; from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: the person who had heard ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib – may Allah be pleased with him – related to me that he said:

“Certitude (yaqīn) is founded upon four pillars: perceptive insight, a sound interpretation of wisdom, taking admonition from lessons, and adherence to the sunnah of the earliest generations. Whoever attains perceptive insight will interpret wisdom correctly; whoever interprets wisdom correctly will recognize the lesson; and whoever recognizes the lesson is as though he had lived among the first generations.”