10. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father and a number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad all from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from Ishaq ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz from certain individuals of his people who has said the following:

“Once, I asked abu ‘Abd Allah , ‘On our way to Makkah, we wanted to wear the special dress for Ihram (a certain act of Hajj), but we did not have proper material for shaving, and we did not have bran or flour to use in place of lime. We used flour for this purpose. Allah knows that I had a strange feeling about it.’ He (the Imam) asked, ‘Was your strange feeling for excessive spending?’ I replied, ‘Yes, that is true.’ He (the Imam) then said, ‘There is not anything excessive in what is spent for the wellbeing of the body. I sometimes ask (my people) to mix marrow with oil to use for shaving. Excessive spending is when something that one owns is wasted and the body is harmed.’ I then asked, ‘What is living in austerity?’ He (the Imam) replied, ‘It is living on bread and salt only, when you are able to use other food.’ I then asked, ‘What is moderation?’ He replied, ‘It is moderation when you use bread, meat, vinegar and oil; one time this and next time the other.’”