I said: The scholars and the men of distinction have always liked wit.
And they are delighted by it, because it gathers the souls and eases the heart from the toil of thought.
And indeed Shu'ba used to narrate, and whenever al-Mazid the grammarian saw him, he would say: Indeed he is Abu Zayd al-Basit:
I was astonished at the House of Blessings; we did not speak, and if the house spoke to us, it would have many stories.
And indeed we have narrated from Ibn Aisha hadiths that are witty, and some of them contain obscenity.
And if a man were to say to him, "Would this come from someone like you?"
So he said to him, "Woe to you! Do you not see its chains of transmission?"
There is no one among those I narrated from who is better than all the people of our time.
But you are among those whose inward is ugly, so he displayed his outward appearance.
And indeed, the inner state of the people is worse than their outward appearance.
They described a man among the ascetics to Ubayd Allah ibn Aisha, and they said, "He is all seriousness."
He said, "Indeed, the pasture has become too narrow for him."
He shortened the duration of his restraint; had he loosened it by shifting from one state to another, relief from the tightness of the knot would have followed.
Revisit seriousness with energy and solitude.
And from al-Asma'i: I heard al-Rashid say, "Anecdotes sharpen minds and quicken ears."
And Hammad, son of Salamah, used to say:
Only men like salt.
And only the females among them dislike it.
And al-Asma'i said:
Muhammad ibn Imran al-Tamimi, the judge of the city, recited.
I have not seen anyone among the judges wiser than him.
O questioner who asks about my dwelling, I stayed at the inn by myself.
Bread comes to me in the morning from a baker who neither accepts pledges nor overlooks debts.
I ate from my purse and from my clothes until my molar ached.
He said, "Write it for me." I said, "May God set you right; only young people write this."
He said, "Woe to you; write it down, for the nobles admire ornamented speech."
From what we mentioned, it has become clear that the hearts of the scholars roam in permissible amusements.
which gives it a zeal for seriousness, so that it seems to have always been serious.
Abu Firas said: I enliven the heart with some levity, feigning indifference, but not out of ignorance.
I joke in it as people of merit do, and jesting sometimes clears the mind.
If someone says: telling the stories of fools and the gullible causes laughter,
And it has been reported from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said:
Indeed, a man speaks a word that makes his companions laugh by it, and by it he sinks farther than the Pleiades.
So the answer: indeed, it is to be understood that he makes them laugh by lying.
This has been narrated in the hadith, explained:
Woe to the one who tells people things and lies to make them laugh.
