(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Jaber ibn Hayyan, one of the most intelligent and faithful recorders of the traditions of Imam Jafar Sadeq (AS), once asked him: “Why does man become mentally dull after getting old?”
Imam Jafar Sadeq (AS) replied:
“This is not a general rule, and not all the elderly become dull, (while) some people’s minds become slow during their youth. But the trait of joy covers their dullness.
“These people appear to have mental dullness during their old age because (they) lack the joy of youth, which had masked their dullness.
“But the people who are wise, informed, and virtuous during their teenage period are wise, informed, and virtuous during their old age as well, but do not have the same vitality as in their time of youth.
“The old scholars are wiser, more informed, and more intelligent than they were in their youth because what they attain during their youth is trivial, but as they become older and gain more provision, their wisdom increases and they are able to make judgments in an unprejudiced way, and they see that they must always support the truth.”
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