`Ali b. Ahmad b. `Abdullah b. Ahmad b. Abi `Abdillah al-Barqi narrated to us. He said: My father narrated to us from his grandfather Ahmad b. Abi `Abdillah from Isma`il b. Mehran from `Isa b. Hisham from another person from Abi Ja`far Muhammad b. `Ali al-Baqir . He said:

The readers of the Quran are of three types: (1) One is a man who has learned the Quran and has taken it as a piece of merchandise to attract the rulers and dominate the people. (2) One is a man who has learned the Quran and preserved its letters but has lost its principles. He has kept its letters without change, [but I pray that] Allah does not increase the number of people like him as the carriers of the Quran. (3) One is a man who has applied the medicine of the Quran to the malady of his heart. It keeps him vigilant during the night, it makes him endure his thirst during the day, it keeps him standing [in prayer] in the mosques, and it makes him leave his bed for its sake. Through such people, Allah repels calamities; through them, Allah defends [the people] from the enemies; and through them, He sends down rain from the sky. By Allah, such readers of the Quran are more valuable than red sulfur.