A scholar of note had a controversy with an unbeliever but, being br unable to cope with him in argument, shook his head and retired. br Someone asked him how it came to pass that, with all his eloquence and br learning, he had been unable vanquish an irreligious man. He br replied: ‘My learning is in the Quran, in tradition and in the sayings br of sheikhs, which he neither believes in nor listens to. Then of br what use is it to me to hear him blaspheming?’ br To him of whom thou canst not rid thyself by the Quran and tradition br The best reply is if thou dost not reply anything.