“The best of all matters are those in the middle.”

Often quoted as a hadith, and it is not one: the versions that raise it to the Prophet (peace be upon him) have broken or unknown chains. It is a saying of the early generations. Ibn Sa‘d records it with its chain from Mutarrif ibn ‘Abdullah ibn ash-Shikhkhir, a Successor of Basra, and Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih has him say it to a son who had thrown himself into worship: a good deed stands between two bad ones, overdoing and falling short. The meaning is Qur’anic: “thus We have made you a median community” (2:143).