The moment Abu Bakr began using foul language...

The moment Abu Bakr began using foul language, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny), who till then had remained a mute spectator to the incident, suddenly got up from his place in order to distance himself from him. As he (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) moved away, he commented: O’ Abu Bakr!

When that person was abusing you, an angel of God, was answering the person in your defense, but the moment you began abusing him, that angel left you and his place was taken over by the Shaitaan; and I am not of the persons, who would sit in a gathering in which the Shaitaan is present. [^6] Conduct A person approached Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) and said: Your such and such cousin was talking about you, but whatever he spoke was nothing except for abuses and obscene language.

The Imam (peace be upon him) said to his slave-girl: Bring me some water for ablution. He then performed the ablution and stood up for prayers. The narrator said: I thought to myself that the Imam (peace be upon him) would curse the person. When the Imam (peace be upon him) had concluded is two-raka’h prayer, he beseeched: O’ Lord! It was my right (which he had transgressed) and I have forgiven him (for his invectives and abuses).

Your munificence and benefaction is much more than mine, so forgive him and do not chastise him for his conduct. The narrator says: Seeing this compassion of the Imam (peace be upon him), I was overcome with astonishment and amazement. [^7] Ibn Muqaffa’ Ibn Muqaffa’ was an erudite and intelligent person, who had translated several academic and scholarly books into Arabic.

His superior acuity and excellence had caused him to become conceited such that, in public gatherings, he would end up belittling others and at times, even resort to speaking dirty and vulgar things. One of those, who found themselves the object of his offensiveness, was Sufiyaan Ibn Mua'wiyah, who had been appointed the governor of Basrah on the part of Mansur Dawaaniqi, the second Abbasid Caliph.

Sufiyaan had a disproportionately large nose and whenever Ibn Muqaffa’ would arrive before him, he would call out loudly: Salutations to both of you (meaning Sufiyaan and his large nose). At times, he would humiliate him by making references to his mother; one day, in a gathering of people, he addressed him in a loud voice by saying: O’ Son of a lecherous woman! In other gatherings, he would hurt him by various forms of humiliating and abusive language.