Seek not to fight with him who knocks at the door of peace.
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A sage having been asked whether liberality or bravery is better replied: ‘He who possesses liberality needs no bravery.’
‘A liberal hand is better than a strong arm.’Hatim Tai has passed away but for everHis high name will remain celebrated for beneficence.Set aside the zekat from thy property because the exuberant vinesWhen pruned by the vintner will yield more grapes.
A man often made vows of repentance but broke them again till one of the sheikhs said to him: ‘I think thou art in the habit of eating a great deal and that thy power of restraining appetite is more slender than a hair, whilst an appetite such as thou nourishest would rupture a chain and a day may come when it will tear thee up.’
When it was brought up it tore him up.
Two things are contrary to reason: to enjoy more than is decreed and to die before the time appointed.
By thanks or complaints, issuing from the mouth.The angel appointed over the treasures of windCares not if the lamp of a widow dies.
A dervish wanted something and a man told him that a certain individual possessed untold wealth who, if he were made aware of his want, would not consider it proper to fail in supplying it forthwith. The dervish answering that he had no acquaintance with him, the man proposed to show him the house and when the dervish entered he caught sight of a person with hanging lips and sitting morosely. He returned immediately and being asked what he had done replied: ‘I excused him from making me a present when I saw his face.’
Because his ill-humour will crush thy hopes.If thou confidest thy heart’s grief, tell it to oneWhose face will comfort thee like ready cash.
I asked a good man concerning the qualities of the brethren of purity. He replied: ‘The least of them is that they prefer to please their friends rather than themselves; and philosophers have said that a brother who is fettered by affairs relating to himself is neither a brother nor a relative.’
Tie not thy heart to one whose heart is not tied to thine.When a kinsman possesses no virtue and pietyThen severing connection is better than love of kinship.I remember that an opponent objected to the last two lines, saying: ‘God the most high and glorious has in his noble book prohibited the severing of connection…
A parrot, having been imprisoned in a cage with a crow, was vexed by the sight and said: ‘What a loathsome aspect is this! What an odious figure! What cursed object with rude habits! 0 crow of separation, would that the distance of the east from the west were between us.’
The morn of a day of safety becomes evening to him.An ill-omened one like thyself is fit to keep thee companyBut where in the world is one like thee?More strange still, the crow was similarly distressed by the proximity of the parrot and, having become disgusted, was shouting ‘La haul’, and lamenting the vicissitudes of…