News of fools and simpletons

The book deals with the subject of fools and simpletons. Ibn al-Jawzi divided it into twenty-four chapters, distinguishing between types of foolishness and explaining their meaning. He mentioned the names of fools and described their characteristics, warned against associating with them, and pointed to those whose foolishness and simpletony became proverbial. He also mentioned a group of wise people who committed foolish acts and persisted in them, approving of them, thus becoming fools and simpletons themselves through this persistence. Then Ibn al-Jawzi moved on to talk about the simpletons among reciters and copyists. Then Ibn al-Jawzi moved on to tell us about the foolish among the reciters and copyists, and then he mentioned the foolish among the narrators of Hadith. In this book, Ibn al-Jawzi is a writer with a refined style, skilled in the methods of performance, capable of rare expressions and delicate imagery in a straightforward style that does not chase after the embellishments of words and does not fall under the rule of affectation.