Replied to Husayn ibn Ali, History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. 19, p. 95
“

By God! If any of the Arabs other than you were to say that to me, while he was in the same situation as you, I would not leave him without mentioning his mother's being deprived of him. I would say it whoever he might be. But, by God, there is no way for me to mention your mother except by saying the best things possible.

— Al-Tabari

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "By God! If any of the Arabs other than you were to say that to me, while he was in the same situation as you, I would not leave him without mentioning his mother's being deprived of him. I would say it whoever he might be. But, by God, there is no way for me to mention your mother except by saying the best things possible." in the context of "Replied to Husayn ibn Ali, History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. 19, p. 95" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Al-Tabari" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Al-Tabari

About Al-Tabari

Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazid al-Ṭabarī (/ˈtɑːbəri/; Persian: محمد بن جریر طبری‎, Arabic: أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري‎) (224–310 AH; 839–923 AD) was an influential Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an from Amol, Tabaristan (modern Mazandaran Province of Iran), who composed all his works in Arabic. Today, he is most famous for his expertise in Qur'anic exegesis and Islamic jurisprudence but he has been described as "an impressively prolific polymath. He wrote on such subjects as world history, poetry, lexicography, grammar, ethics, mathematics, and medicine." Al-Tabari's madhhab school flourished among Sunni ulama for two centuries after his death before it eventually became extinct. It was usually designated by the name Jariri.