7. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthman from Muhammad ibn ‘Adhafir from certain individuals of his people from Muhammad ibn Muslim or abu Hamza from Abu ‘Abdillah from his father who has said the following:

“Once Ali ibn al-Husayn said to me, ‘My son, beware of five kinds of people and do not associate with, speak to and accompany them on the road.’ I then asked, ‘Who are they O father?’ He then said, ‘You must not accompany a lying person; he is like a phantom. He tells you of what, in fact, is faraway to be very near and what, in fact, is near to be very far. You must not associate with a sinful person; he may sell you for a single loaf or even less to this or that person. You must not associate with a stingy person; he leaves you out in the cold in financial matters in your desperate conditions. You must not associate with a silly person; he may want to benefit you instead he causes you harm. “You must not associate one who has failed to maintain good relations with relatives; 1 have found him as condemned in three places of the book of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, ‘If you ignore the commands of Allah, would you then also spread evil in the land and sever the ties of kinship? (47:22) Allah has condemned these people and made them deaf, dumb, and blind.’ (47:23) ‘Those who disregard their covenant with Allah after He has taken such a pledge from them, who sever the proper relations that Allah has commanded them to establish, and those who spread evil in the land will have Allah’s condemnation instead of reward and will face the most terrible end.’ (13:25) ‘. . . The evil doers (2:26) who break their established covenant with Him and the relations He has commanded to be kept and who spread evil in the land; these are the ones who lose a great deal.’” (2:27)