“These hearts are only vessels — so occupy them with the Qur’an, and do not occupy them with anything else.”

‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (d. 32 AH / 653 CE) was one of the four Companions the Prophet (peace be upon him) told people to learn the Qur’an from, in a hadith recorded by al-Bukhari. Abu Nu‘aym gives this saying with its chain in Hilyat al-Awliya’, in a run of his sayings about what the heart is for; the one beside it is “knowledge is not a matter of narrating much — knowledge is awe of Allah.”