On Poems About Patience and Silence in Front of the Ignorant, and Not Treating Friends With Reproach, and Attracting the Enemy So That He Becomes Friends and on Hiding Secrets

43-7 Al-Hakim Abu Ali Al-Husayn ibn Ahmad al-Bayhaqi narrated that Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Sowli quoted on the authority of Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Abi Ebad, on the authority of his uncle, “Although Ar-Ridha’ عليه السلام rarely recited poems, one day I heard him عليه السلام recite the following poem:We all hope death to grant us more timeWhile death itself destroys all hopes.Let not false hopes fool you.Be moderate and abandon falsehood.This world is like a vanishing shadeA temporary resting place for ridersWho shall depart it shortly later.Then I asked the Imam عليه السلام, “May God honor you! Who recited this?” He عليه السلام replied, “An Iraqi has said it for you.” I said, “Abul al-Atahiya recited this to me regarding himself.” The Imam عليه السلام said, “Call him by his own name. Abandon calling people by names that are a form of a put down. Indeed God the Glorified the Highest said, ‘…nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames…’ Perhaps the man detests this.”