Akhlaq al-Ashraf

Boundless thanks and limitless praise to the Necessary Being, God, whose power is exalted, who adorned humankind with the ornament of reason and dressed it in the form of existence, so that through it a person might strive to the utmost in acquiring noble character and beautiful qualities. And countless blessings upon the luminous, fragrant resting place of the Lord of all creation, Muhammad the Chosen, upon whom be the most perfect greetings, whose robe of nature and decree of creation were embroidered with the words «Were it not for you, I would not have created the heavens» and crowned with «Truly you are of a magnificent character». And peace and greetings upon his descendants and companions, for whichever of them you follow, you will be guided rightly. Now then: let it not be hidden from people of perfection, to whom this address is directed, that over the body of every human being a noble substance called the soul is appointed as guardian and master, coming from the realm of command, as in «Say: the spirit is from the command of my Lord». The true reality of a person is that substance; it stands by its own essence, is protected and preserved from annihilation, and is capable of progress and perfection. Just as the body takes pleasure in appetites and sensory delights and turns toward the lower world, so the soul takes its share from knowledge of the Glorious Lord, which is the final goal of all goals, and from grasping truths and dispensing good, and it turns toward the sacred world. And just as the body, through chronic disease, loses its proper function, so too the soul, when it falls sick with the illnesses peculiar to it, love of rank and wealth, chasing appetites, and attention to the pleasures of the lower world, loses its proper function: beholding the majestic Lord, grasping the intelligibles, and dispensing good. Indeed, a poet must have said in this sense: You were raised out of both worlds, nurtured through so many intermediaries. You are the first in the plan of creation and the last in the reckoning; do not treat yourself as something trivial. And just as physicians have devoted their effort to curing the body's ills and preserving its health, so the prophets fixed their aim on driving off the afflictions and diseases of the soul, in order to bring it from deadly whirlpools and the abyss of ignorance to the shore of salvation and perfection. When a wise man reflects carefully, it becomes clear to him that the purpose of sending those who bore the trust of prophethood was to refine the character and purify the conduct of God's servants. This meaning has flowed onto a poet's tongue in this manner: Whether or not a prophet comes, keep your conduct pure, for a person of clean character does not go to hell. The Prophet himself lifted the veil from the face of this bride of meaning and displayed the beauty of this hint upon the throne of plain statement, saying, «I was sent to perfect noble character». The scholars of old set down in writing, in long treatises whose meaning my humble understanding cannot fully grasp, the best and safest way to perfect one's character. From the blessed time of Adam the Pure until this age, the noblest of humankind have, with great toil and discipline, striven mightily to understand the four virtues, wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, and have counted them the cause of worldly happiness and otherworldly salvation, and have said: Whatever your religion, be a doer of good and generous, for unbelief with good character is better than Islam with bad character. Now, in this age which is the cream of all eras and the essence of all centuries, since the temperament of the great has grown refined and men of high mind and lofty judgment have appeared, they have turned their clear thought and sound reflection upon the whole matter of this life and the next. The old customs seemed base and worthless to their discerning eyes; and since, with the passing of time, most of those old rules had decayed, reviving them weighed heavy on the noble minds and luminous hearts of these people. So, like true men, they trod underfoot those old morals and ways, and for the sake of their life and their hereafter they took up this new path now current among the great and the notables, of which this brief treatise sets out to describe a little, and they firmly built the foundation of their religious and worldly affairs upon it. The field of meanings is open and the thread of talk is long; let us begin with our purpose. For some time this feeble one, Obayd Zakani, has felt a stirring in his heart to compose a brief work: partly on the morals of the ancients, which people now call the abolished code, and partly on the morals and ways of the great of this age, which they consider the chosen code, so that it may benefit seekers of this science and beginners on this road. Thus he set down this treatise, named The Ethics of the Aristocrats, and arranged it in seven chapters, each containing two doctrines: the abolished doctrine by which the ancients lived, and the chosen doctrine which our great men have now invented. And although the scope of this brief work ends in satire, still: Anyone who knows this city knows where our wares come from. The hope of this feeble one, in composing this brief work, is that: Perhaps some kind heart, some day, somewhere, will say a prayer for this poor man's cause.

The philosophers, in defining wisdom, have said: Wisdom is the perfecting of the human soul in its two faculties, the theoretical and the practical. The theoretical faculty knows the truths of things as they really are, while the practical faculty is the acquiring of a habit of the soul by which one can produce beautiful acts and avoid ugly ones, and this is called character. In other words, two faculties are set within the rational soul, and its perfection depends on completing them both: one is the theoretical faculty and one is the practical. The theoretical faculty is when a person's longing turns toward grasping knowledge and reaching understanding, so that, driven by that longing, one gains the knowledge of things as it truly deserves to be known. After that, one is admitted to the knowledge of the true beloved and the ultimate purpose that is the end of all beings, the Exalted and Holy, until, guided by that knowledge, one reaches the realm of divine oneness, indeed the station of union, and one's heart finds rest, for 'surely in the remembrance of God do hearts find peace.' Then the dust of doubt and the rust of uncertainty are wiped from the face of the inner mind and the mirror of the heart, as the poet has said: Wherever certainty arrives, all doubt takes flight. And the practical faculty is when a person orders and arranges his powers and actions so that they agree and harmonize with one another, and through that balance his character becomes pleasing. Whenever knowledge and action come together in a person to this degree, he may be called the perfect human and the deputy of God, and his rank is the highest of all human ranks, as God the Exalted said: 'He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever is given wisdom has been given much good.' And after parting from the body his spirit becomes ready for lasting bliss, eternal happiness, and the acceptance of God's grace, and: This is a matter of fortune; who knows now upon whom it will fall. Up to this point, this is the doctrine of the ancients and the philosophers.

When the great and clever hairsplitters, whose noble presence now graces the earth, reflected on the perfecting of the human soul and its origin and its return, and set before their eyes the traditions and opinions of the elders of the past, they arrived at a complete denial of these beliefs. They declare: 'It has been revealed to us that the rational soul has no independent reality; its survival depends on the survival of the body, and its perishing is bound to the perishing of the flesh.' And they say: 'What the prophets claimed, that the soul has perfection and imperfection, that after parting from the body it subsists on its own and will endure, is impossible, and resurrection is a false notion. Life is nothing but the balanced composition of the body. Once the body disintegrates, that person becomes forever nothing and void. What is spoken of as the pleasures of heaven and the torments of hell can exist in this very world, as the poet said: Whoever has been given, has been given it right here; and whoever has nothing, they have been promised it for tomorrow. So they are entirely free of concern for resurrection, punishment, torment, nearness, distance, favor, wrath, perfection, and deficiency. The result of this belief is that they spend the whole of their lives chasing appetites and reaching pleasures, saying: You who are the product of the four elements and the seven planets, and are forever tormented by those seven and four, drink wine, for I have told you a thousand times: there is no coming back; once you are gone, you are gone. And most of them inscribe this quatrain on the little coffins over their fathers' graves: Beyond this vaulted sky there is no hall or corridor; there is no mind or discernment except in me and you. The nothingness that imagination has taken to be a something, drop that fancy gladly, for there is no such something there. And it is because of this belief that shedding people's blood, seizing their wealth, and violating their honor seem trivial and worthless to such a person: To him a single sip of wine, red as fire, is dearer than the blood of a hundred brothers. Truly, what fortunate great men! What stayed hidden from others for thousands of years, despite all the purifying of intellect and soul, was revealed to them without the slightest effort.

The sages have said that the human soul has three distinct powers, each the source of different actions. The first is the rational power, the origin of thought and discernment. The second is the power of anger, which drives one to face dangers and to seek elevation and mastery. The third is the power of appetite, which they call the animal power, the source of the need for food and the desire for eating, drinking, and mating. Whenever a person's rational soul is balanced in its essence and eager to acquire true knowledge, the science of wisdom follows and comes to it. Whenever the beastly, that is, the angry soul is balanced and submits to reason, the soul gains the virtue of courage. Whenever the movement of the animal soul is balanced and follows the rational soul, it gains the virtue of chastity. When these three kinds of virtue are attained and blend together, a harmonious state arises from all three, and in it lies the perfection of the virtues. This is called the virtue of justice. And the sages have defined the brave man as one who possesses valor, high ambition, calmness of soul, steadiness, endurance, boldness, humility, zeal, and tenderness. Whoever is described by these traits has been praised, and for this reason has held his head high among people. They have never counted this way as a disgrace; rather, they have set the tales of such a man's battles and combats among words of praise, and have said: The foundation of a man's manliness is courage, generosity, and wisdom.

Our companions teach: a man who throws himself into a dreadful affair and enters into fighting and quarreling with another cannot escape one of two outcomes. Either he defeats his enemy and kills him, or the reverse. If he kills his enemy, he carries the blood of an innocent on his neck, and the punishment for that will surely follow him, in this world and the next; and if the enemy wins, then hell is that man's appointed road. How could a wise person launch into an act whose two possible ends are both like this? What clearer proof do you need than this: wherever there is a wedding, a concert, or a gathering full of food, sweets, robes of honor, and gold, they summon the entertainers, the buffoons, the harpists, and the jesters. But wherever arrows and spears must be taken to the flesh, they puff up some fool with, 'You are a man, a champion, a breaker of armies, a hero of the arena,' and set him in front of the blades, so that once that wretch is killed in battle, the idlers and clowns of the town can mock him and say: I cannot bear to take arrows, axes, or spears; food, wine, and a musician suit me just fine. And when a champion is killed on the battlefield, the loafers and clowns watch from a distance and say to one another, 'Long live the master's soul, live as an idler and live long.' A prudent man should, on the day of battle, take as his rule the words of the champions of Khorasan, who say: 'Let the brave men leap into the field; we will leap into the hayloft.' Naturally most heroes and champions have made this couplet the seal on their ring: 'A well-timed retreat is a victory.' Happy the champion whose daily bread is this. They tell of a young man from Isfahan who, in a wilderness, was set upon by a Mongol who attacked him. Out of sheer cleverness the youth pleaded, 'Master, for God's sake, sodomize me but don't kill me,' meaning: take me but spare my life. The Mongol took pity and did as he asked. By the blessing of this stratagem the young man escaped death; they say he lived another thirty years afterward with a good name. What a lucky young man! It seems this proverb was coined for him: The young who are wise and willing to learn deserve to sit above the old. Friends! Treasure the way of life and the custom of these great ones. Pity our poor fathers, who spent a lifetime in error and never grasped these truths.

In the accounts of the great forebears one reads that in past ages chastity was counted among the four cardinal virtues. Of it they said: chastity means purity of conduct. The word 'chaste' was applied to anyone who kept the eye from looking at what is forbidden, the ear from hearing slander, the hand from seizing the property of others, the tongue from foul speech, and the self from all that is unworthy. Such a person was held in honor. As the poet said: Whoever, like the cypress, stands pure in conduct, walks straight, and keeps his hands off what is not his, holds his head high above all people. This is exactly what is meant. They say a wise man heard his son speak ill of someone and told him: 'My son, would you be content that your tongue carry what you would not want to see on the body of another?' A man was complaining about someone else, listing his faults to the Commander of the Faithful, Hasan son of Ali. Ali said to his son: 'My son, keep your ear clean of him, for he has looked at the vilest thing in his own vessel and now wants to empty it into yours.' When they hung Mansur al-Hallaj on the gallows, he said: 'In my childhood I was passing along a street and heard a woman's voice from a rooftop. I looked up to gaze at her. Now I count looking down from the gallows as the atonement for that upward glance.'

Our companions declare: the ancients made a shameful blunder in this matter and squandered their precious lives in error and ignorance. Whoever practices that old way of restraint gets no benefit from being alive. In scripture it is written: '...the life of this world is only play and amusement and adornment, and boasting among yourselves, and rivalry in wealth and children...' and they interpret its meaning to be that the whole point of worldly life is play, amusement, finery, showing off, piling up money, and outbreeding others. They say that amusement and play without vice and the instruments of forbidden pleasure are impossible, and that gathering wealth without hurting people, without oppression and slander and running one's tongue over others' honor, cannot be done. So inevitably anyone who practices chastity is deprived of all this, cannot be counted among the living, and his life is pointless. And they take this from the verse: 'Did you think We created you in vain, and that you would not be returned to Us?' What idiocy it is when a man finds himself alone with a moon-faced beauty and does not enjoy her life-giving embrace, saying 'I am pure of skirt,' until he is stricken with the brand of deprivation, and perhaps such a chance never comes again in his whole life, so he dies of grief muttering 'Wasting an opportunity is a lasting sorrow.' The one they once called chaste and pure and self-restrained is now called a jackass, a fool, and a cold-hearted dolt. They say: the eye and ear and tongue and the other organs were created to draw in benefit and ward off harm, and to forbid any organ its natural function, the very reason it was made, is to void that organ. Since voiding an organ is not permissible, everyone should see with the eye whatever pleases it, hear with the ear whatever pleases it, and speak with the tongue whatever serves his interests, be it filth, injury, slander, flattery, foul insult, or false testimony. If this harms another or ruins another's household, pay it no mind, and keep your heart easy about it: do and say whatever pleases you; screw anyone your heart desires without hesitation, so that your life does not go to waste. As long as you can, seek a charming, heart-stealing lover; seek a mistress who is quick and sweet and lovely. Once you have found her, give her not a breath's respite; have her, let her go, and go seeking another. They say: if a teacher or a friend has an appetite to take pleasure from this person, he should give in without delay or hesitation and by no means refuse, for 'opportunity passes like a drifting cloud.' Do not leave today's work for tomorrow; who knows what the times will bring by then. And he should not let refusal cross his mind, for 'refusal is unbelief,' and he should count it a complete windfall. For it is plain to see that whoever, man or woman, never yielded to sex remained forever wretched and downtrodden, scorched by the brand of deprivation and abandonment. And it has been proven by decisive arguments that from the time of Adam the Chosen until now, no one who refused this ever became a prince, a vizier, a champion, an army-breaker, a warrior, a rich man, a man of fortune, a sheikh, a preacher, or a herald. Proof of this claim: the Sufis call yielding to it 'the ailment of the masters.' And in the chronicles it is written that Rostam son of Zal won all his fame and glory by yielding. As they have said: When the mighty champion loosened his waistband, the noble hero came down onto his knees. Human raised his shaft like a rising smoke, just as Piran had ordered him to do. He drove so hard into Rostam that Rostam was set ablaze by the blow. Then it was Human's turn to go beneath, while the champion rose like a bold lion. He rammed him with such a mighty stroke that Human was torn to pieces. So two sword-wielders were both taken from behind, and both were reckoned among the chosen heroes. You too, my brother, when you grow strong, would do well to heed my words. Lie down and lift yourself up to be taken, and put your talents on full display. So that everyone who comes may have you, and your heart may find its ease in what it takes. 'Since the world stays firm for no one, better that goodness be left behind as one's legacy.' And they have also said: Know that eternal bliss lies in coupling, yet only the one who gives carries off the prize of bliss. Truly our elders speak these words from experience, and the right is on their side. For it has become clear that keeping one's rear intact brings no blessing. A man should both give and take, for the order of things rests on give and take; only then can he be called great and 'noble on both ends,' and if his father and mother did the same, he may be addressed as 'well-born on both sides.' And though some of the common folk mock, saying that yielding is a backwards generosity and a chivalry from the rear end, their words carry no weight, and they fail to grasp that 'generosity with one's own self is the highest kind of generosity.' Whoever, out of ill fortune, misses the chance to give has lost the key to good fortune and will remain forever in humiliation and misery. A poet has said of such a man: Let him bite the back of his hand in regret: an oven this hot, and he baked no bread in it. For the fortunate soul who is ready to accept counsel, this much on the subject is enough. May God grant everyone the grace to do good.

The great forebears counted justice among the four virtues, and built the affairs of this world and the next upon it. They believed that 'by justice the heavens and the earth stand firm,' and they held to the command that 'surely God orders justice and kindness.' For this reason, kings, commanders, nobles, and ministers always devoted their efforts to spreading justice and looking after the people and the army, and they saw this as the source of their power and good name. So deeply was this held that even ordinary people practiced justice in their dealings and partnerships, and would say: Act justly, for in the realm of the heart the just one strikes at the rank of prophethood.

But the doctrine of our school is this: that this practice of justice is the worst of ways, and that justice brings endless ruin. They have proven this with clear arguments, saying: the foundation of kingship, command, and governance rests on force and intimidation. Unless people fear someone, they will not obey him; all will be equal, the order of affairs will crack, and the system of things will fall apart. The ruler who, God forbid, practices justice, who beats no one, kills no one, seizes no property, does not get himself drunk, and shows no rage or fury toward his subjects: people will not fear him, the subjects will not obey their kings, sons and servants will not heed their fathers and masters, and the welfare of lands and people will collapse. For this very reason they have said: Kings will spill a hundred lives for the sake of a single gain! They declare: 'Justice brings ruin.' What clearer proof than this: the kings of Persia, like Zahhak the Arab and the sinner Yazdegerd, over whom the seat of hell now presides, and the others who came after them: as long as they practiced oppression, their fortune was rising and their kingdom flourishing. When the reign reached Khosrow Anushirvan, on the feeble advice and counsel of half-witted viziers he chose the way of justice. In no time the battlements of his palace collapsed, the fire-temples that were their shrines all died out at once, and their trace was wiped from the face of the earth. The Commander of the Faithful, the builder of the pillars of faith, Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, who was famed for justice, laid bricks by hand and ate barley bread; they say his cloak weighed seventeen mans. Muawiya, by the blessing of tyranny, wrested the kingdom from the hand of Imam Ali, may God honor his face. Not until Nebuchadnezzar had slaughtered twelve thousand innocent prophets in Jerusalem, taken thousands more captive, and set them to tending his beasts did his fortune rise and did he stand exalted in both worlds. Genghis Khan, who today, to the blindness of his foes, sits in the lowest pit of hell as the leader and guide of all Mongols, first and last: not until he had cut down thousands upon thousands of the innocent with his merciless sword was the kingship of the whole earth secured for him. A Tale: It is recorded in the Mongol chronicles that when Hulagu Khan had conquered Baghdad, he ordered that those who had escaped the sword be gathered before him. He questioned each group about its trade, and once he understood the state of them all, he said: 'Craftsmen are indispensable,' and let them go back to their work. To the merchants he gave capital to trade on his behalf. The Jews he judged an oppressed people, so he was content to take tribute from them. The catamites he sent to his own harem. The judges, sheikhs, Sufis, pilgrims, preachers, chanters, beggars, wandering dervishes, wrestlers, poets, and storytellers he set apart and declared: 'These are surplus to creation and waste the bounty of God.' He ordered them all drowned in the river and cleansed the face of the earth of their filth. Inevitably, kingship stayed in his house for nearly ninety years, and every day their fortune grew. But when the wretched Abu Said got the notion of justice into his head and made himself known by the slogan of justice, in a short while his fortune was spent, and the house of Hulagu Khan and all his labors were undone by Abu Said's good intention. Yes: When a man's days turn dark, he does only what will do him harm. Mercy be upon these great and blessed men who guided the people out of the darkness of justice into the light of righteous oppression.

Trustworthy sources report that in bygone days people prized generosity, and anyone known for this trait was praised and celebrated, and parents urged their children toward it. They believed in it so firmly that a person felt no shame in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or lending a hand to the helpless. They took the matter so far that anyone who practiced this way of life was praised by all and never once faulted for it. Scholars wrote whole books to keep the memory of such a person alive, and poets composed verses in their honor. One can argue this from the clear verses of scripture: 'Whoever brings a good deed shall have ten times its like,' and 'You will never attain righteousness until you spend from what you love.' And it is related from the Prophet: 'The generous soul does not enter the Fire, even if he be a sinner.' A certain noble man said on this subject: If you wish for greatness, set your heart on giving; tie the mouth of your purse shut with a blade of leek.

Our elders, who stood apart from the great men of past ages for the soundness of their judgment and the sharpness of their insight, examined this matter with the utmost care, and their enlightened minds grasped the flaws of generous conduct. So they labored to guard their wealth and preserve their comfort, taking as their guide the plain words of Scripture, 'Eat and drink, but do not be wasteful,' and again, 'God does not love the wasteful.' They saw clearly that the ruin of the old houses had come from open-handedness and squandering. Whoever made a name for himself in generosity never knew peace again: the greedy turned toward him from every side, each stripping away what he had with a flattering word or a fresh excuse. And that poor simple-hearted soul, deceived by their nonsense, would soon see all he had inherited and earned brought to waste, ending up ruined and in need. But whoever leaned on the habit of stinginess, taking shelter in miserliness from the aims of schemers and the pleas of beggars, escaped the trouble of people and passed his life in plenty and ease. They say that wealth stands in place of life itself, and since one must spend precious years to acquire it, it would be far from reason to let it perish, say, on clothing, drink, food, or the ease of a body that will die anyway, or to squander it merely so that others might praise him. And so, if a great man has money, you cannot pry a single coin out of his miserly grip with a thousand pincers. Suppose the whole realm of a king and emperor belonged to that one man: That stone the oil-pressers use to crush the seed, if you set it on his belly, would not make him break wind. And this verse fits the same theme: Until the word 'give' is dropped from talk with him, he would sooner die of colic than pass wind. Now the masters of miserliness, whom people call the prudent great men, have written testaments and composed whole books on this subject. A story: one of the great men once told his son, 'My boy, know that the word 'no' drives away misfortune, and the word 'yes' multiplies calamities.' Another, among his final counsels, said, 'My son, take care to keep your tongue from the word 'yes' and let 'no' always be on your lips. Be certain that as long as your dealings rest on 'no,' your affairs will rise high; and as long as your word is 'yes,' your heart will be sunk in grief.' A story: death came to one of the great men, the Croesus of his age. Losing all hope of life, he called in his beloved children, the young ones of a house of miserliness, and said: 'My children, for a long age I have suffered the hardships of travel and home in gathering wealth, and I have squeezed my own throat with the claws of hunger until I saved these few gold coins. See that you never grow careless in guarding them, and never lay a spending hand on them. Know for certain that: God created gold to be precious; whoever treated it cheaply became cheap himself. 'If someone comes to you and says, 'I saw your father in a dream, and he was craving a sweet stew,' beware of being fooled by his trick, for I will not have said any such thing, and a dead man eats nothing.' 'And even if I myself appear to you in a dream and make the very same request, pay it no heed, for such things are called jumbled dreams; that is only a demon showing itself, and I would never crave in death what I did not eat in life.' He said this, then handed his soul over to the keeper of Hell. A story: another great man is said to have haggled beyond all measure over two barleycorns in a deal with someone. When they told him, 'This trifle is not worth such fuss,' he replied, 'Why should I let go of an amount of my wealth that could last me a day, a week, a month, a year, my whole life?' They asked, 'How so?' He said, 'If I spend it on salt for my food, it lasts a day; on the bathhouse, a week; on a bloodletter, a month; on a broom, a year; and if I spend it on a nail and drive it into the wall, it lasts a lifetime. So why should I let a blessing on which so many of my needs depend slip away from me through negligence?' A story: a great man is said to have held each loaf, one by one, before his eyes in his blessed hand whenever bread was baked in his house, saying, 'May no harm ever touch your days!' before handing it to the storekeeper. When the smell of the bread reached his servants and household, they would say: You are behind the curtain while we bleed our hearts out; ah, if the curtain fell, what an uproar we would raise! A story: in these very days a nobleman's son gave his cloak to a dervish. The fault-finders carried word of this to his father's ears, and he scolded his son over it. The son said, 'I read in a book that whoever seeks greatness must give away all he has in self-sacrifice; longing for that, I gave away this cloak.' The father said, 'You fool! You have misread the word 'give away'; you got it wrong by mistaking the dots. The great men said: whoever seeks greatness must store up all he has, so as to be honored by it. Do you not see how all the great men today busy themselves with hoarding?' And the poet says: Little by little it comes to a great heap; grain in the storehouse is gathered seed by seed. A story: one of the great men of the age said to his slave, 'Buy a bit of meat with your own money and cook me a meal from it, and I will set you free.' The slave rejoiced, made a roast, and brought it before him. The master drank the broth, then handed the meat back to the slave. The next day he said, 'Make a saffron chickpea stew with that meat, so I may eat it and set you free.' The slave obeyed, made it, and brought it. The master gulped it down, then handed the meat back. On the third day the meat had gone rotten and useless. The slave said, 'Master, for the sake of God let it be, and I will remain your slave all the same. If truly some good passes through your blessed mind, then for God's sake, set this scrap of meat free!' Truly, only one who manages his living with such prudence can be called great and far-sighted. And so, as long as he is in this world, he lives cherished and sought after, and in the next world the loftiness of his rank is beyond all telling, measure, or description.

Forbearance means patience. The ancients called a person forbearing when their soul had reached such calm and steadiness that anger could not easily stir them, and when trouble struck they did not fall into distress. It is related from the Prophet that 'Forbearance is a shield against calamities.' If you reverse the letters of the word 'halim' (forbearing) it becomes 'malh' (salt), and from this they said, 'Forbearance is the salt of character.' The poet praised the virtue of forbearance in this manner: The weight of your forbearance broke the mountain's back, so it stays fixed in place like one struck down and helpless. When two motionless things meet, one of them must yield and give way.

In truth, our companions do not forbid this trait entirely. They say that although the person who practices forbearance and patience will have people grow bold with him and read it as weakness, still this trait carries benefits, and it plays a full part in the affairs of one's livelihood. The proof of this claim is that these days, unless a person has borne, as a child, the abuse of pederasts and thugs and has put forbearance and dignity to work, he will not now receive many slaps and beatings in the gatherings and assemblies of the great; they do not shove a finger up his backside, do not pluck his beard, do not throw him in the pool, do not heap gross insults on his wife and sister. That wise man now called a man of the age, thanks to the forbearance and dignity fixed and deposited in his rational soul, until he has endured those hardships cannot achieve a single barley-grain's worth, and remains forever failing, ruined, wretched, and giving joy to his enemies; they let him into no house, and he can gain no standing before any great man. Whoever says 'a slap is the key to sustenance' bases it on this notion, and it is the meaning of this verse they have composed: A man, in the grinding struggle of fate, should be the lower millstone, This confirms that claim. One benefit of forbearance is this: if a great man's harem and dependents are accused of some scandal, and he is stripped of the ornament of forbearance and the adornment of dignity, rage will overpower his temper and he goes mad, for 'anger is the ghoul of reason'; he permits the killing and beating of wife and child and the mutilation of his retinue and servants, tears down his own house with his own hands, drives wife and child to loathe him, and stays anxious and grief-stricken night and day lest some slanderer mock his household, dependents, and honor; and he says: If you have a sense of honor, you live in pain, and if you have none, you are counted no man. But that fortunate great man whose being is adorned with the ornament of forbearance and dignity, though a thousand times all his dependents were violated before his eyes, not a mote of dust would settle on his blessed mind. Inevitably, as long as he lives he passes his days in comfort and ease: he is pleased with his family and dependents, and they are at ease and safe from him. If at some point a scandal is brought to him, he pays it no heed and says: If a dog barks on the roof of the barn, do not grieve. A tale: I heard that recently a great man had a plain but chaste wife; he freed himself of her by divorce and took a beautiful whore in marriage. The lady, as is the custom, gave open invitation to all. They rebuked him: 'You cast off a chaste wife and chose a harlot?' Out of the perfection of his forbearance and dignity that great man replied: 'Your deficient minds cannot reach the secret of this wisdom; before this I used to eat shit alone, and now I eat sweets with a thousand men!' It is said among the proverbs that 'the cuckold is happy in both worlds.' They have interpreted it thus: as long as the cuckold is in this world, since he is not afflicted with the disease of jealous honor he can live carefree; and in the next world too, according to the saying 'the cuckold does not enter Paradise,' since he need not go to Paradise, he will be spared the vexation of keeping company with petty shaykhs and ascetics who dwell there and from their sour faces, thanks to the blessing of this disposition; wherever he sees a petty shaykh he says: If your place is to be in Paradise, others would sooner choose Hell, By this reasoning, the cuckold is happy in both worlds. But here a point arises: if a questioner asks, 'This crowd, that is, the eminent cuckolds, since they loathe Paradise because of the company of petty shaykhs, and in Hell too, for every shaykh in Paradise a thousand judges and their deputies and agents are seated, how is it they are not wearied by their company?' You answer: since the shaykhs in this world were marked by worship and purity, though this in secret smacked of hypocrisy and vanity, while that oppressed cuckold has never sat and prayed nor prostrated, the shaykh's way runs contrary to the cuckold's. But the judges and their followers, being famed for disobedience, fraud, deceit, trickery, devouring the forbidden, oppression, calumny, fault-finding, false testimony, greed, nullifying the rights of Muslims, covetousness, cunning, sowing discord among people, shamelessness, and taking bribes, and since these very traits are ingrained in the cuckold, there can be a full kinship between them, and this kinship itself becomes the ground of companionship with the judges and their followers, for 'like inclines to like.' In the words of the sages it is said that 'kinship is the cause of union.' Inevitably, when the little hell-fetcher drags such a fellow to Hell, that great man, glad at heart, says: If tomorrow they bring me into Paradise among the righteous without my friend, better still that they haul me into Hell with the sinners. One of the great commentators, interpreting the verse 'and there is none of you but shall come to it,' said this: all creatures pass over the bridge like lightning, except the judges and their followers, who abide in Hell forever and forever, playing fiery chess with one another. As it comes in the Prophetic reports and the traditions of Mustafa: 'the people of the Fire amuse themselves with fire.' For these reasons they prefer this trait over other traits.

The wise have said that modesty means holding the self in check, so that a person avoids any shameful act that would bring reproach. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: 'Modesty is part of faith.' Loyalty means committing to the path of mutual support: repaying and answering for whatever kindness has reached you. In the clear text of revelation it is written: 'Whoever fulfills what he has pledged to God, He will grant him a great reward.' Truthfulness means keeping your heart honest with your friends, so that nothing false passes your lips. And mercy and compassion mean that when you see someone in distress or in an unpleasant state, you feel for them and set your whole effort on relieving it.

Our masters declare that these traits are utterly worn out and hollow. Any wretch who catches one of these base qualities stays disappointed and defeated his whole life and never wins a single wish. It is obvious that a person of shame is deprived of every blessing, too weak to gain rank or amass wealth; shame stands forever as a huge barrier and a thick veil between him and his desires, and he is left weeping over his own bad luck. When they call the rain a weeping of shame from the cloud, this is where the idea comes from. The Prophet, peace be upon him, says: Shame blocks your livelihood. And you can see it: whoever takes up shamelessness as a trade and makes disgrace his stock skins people alive, says whatever his heart wants, does not value anyone's head at the price of a fart, hoists himself past every obstacle to the highest peaks, and lords it over his own patrons and superiors, even over those to whom he owes everything; and people, because of his brazenness, are afraid of him. Meanwhile that deprived wretch branded with shame is always left behind the doors, sitting in hallways with his head on the knee of failure; he takes the doormen's blows, scratches the back of his neck, gazes with envy at the brazen crowd, and says: The ignorant man sits high on the cushion while the learned stays outside the door; he seeks a way in by cunning, and cannot even reach the doorkeeper. As for loyalty: they say loyalty is the fruit of a mean soul and of greed getting the upper hand. For whenever a man gains some small thing from a patron or a friend, or through that patron or friend finds a way to make a living and to socialize, greed and appetite drive him to hope for more of the same profit, so that every single day, like a meddling barber, he pesters that poor soul, and the wretched target is worn out to death by the sight of him, longing to be rid of his company. When he sees that loyal man he says: The Angel of Death would be more welcome to me than the sight of you. The ancients, out of ignorance, praised such behavior. And whenever someone reached the utmost extreme of loyalty, they compared him to a dog. A man should keep his own advantage in view: once he has gained what he wanted and has no further expectation, even if it is his own father, he should give him no attention at all; let him spend each morning with one crowd and each evening with another. Anyone who wants to enjoy his life should pay no heed to this nonsense, so that he may delight in everyone's bounty and company; people will not tire of him, and he will know for certain that: A bite from every pot is the sweetest fare. A tale: They say Muhyi al-Din al-Arabi, the sage of his age and the model for the scholars of his time, spent thirty years night and day as the companion of Mawlana Nur al-Din the astronomer, and the two could not rest a moment apart. During the several days when Nur al-Din lay on his deathbed, Muhyi al-Din sat at his bedside busy with drinking. One night he went off to his room; in the morning, when he came into the house, he found his servants with their hair cropped, in mourning for Nur al-Din. He asked what was the matter. They said Mawlana Nur al-Din had died. He said, 'A pity, Nur al-Din.' Then he turned to his own servant and said, 'Let us go and find ourselves another drinking mate.' And from there he went straight back to his room. They say he lived twenty years after that, and no one ever heard him utter Nur al-Din's name again. Truly it is everyone's duty to learn loyalty from that peerless sage of the age. And what clearer proof than this: that everyone who attached himself to loyalty was always full of grief and, at the end of his life, wasted it uselessly on that pursuit? Just as Farhad carved through Mount Bisitun and never reached his goal, until at last he gave up his sweet life over Shirin's affair; he died in longing, saying: So poor Farhad has thrown away, for the sake of sweet Shirin, his own sweet life. And that poor man they call Majnun of the Banu Amir was a wise and accomplished youth. Suddenly he lost his heart to a little girl named Layla. In his loyalty to her life turned bitter for him, and he never had any pleasure from her; he ran through the deserts barefoot and bareheaded, saying: By God, if I could meet Layla alone just once, I would walk barefoot in pilgrimage to the House of God. Our elders speak the truth: 'A trait whose fruit is this is better abandoned.' As for truthfulness, our elders say this is the meanest of qualities, for truthfulness is the very seed of quarrels and losses. Whoever walks the path of truth finds no honor with anyone. A man should, as far as he can, tell his patrons and friends what pleases them, speak lies and flattery, and use the phrase 'the prince speaks the truth'; whatever suits people's mood, that he should put into words. For example, if some grandee at midnight says, 'Look, it is the noon prayer,' he should leap up at once and say, 'You are quite right, the sun is scorching hot today,' and to confirm it swear by the holy book and by a threefold divorce of his wife. If he is in the company of some old, miserly, ugly-faced catamite, when he opens his mouth he should address him as the champion of the age, the true stud of the world, the sweet young thing just come of age, the Joseph of Egypt, the Hatim of Tayy, so as to win gold, robes, and rank from him and root his friendship firmly in that man's heart. But if someone, God forbid, lives the opposite of this and brands himself with truthfulness: suppose out of good counsel he tells some grandee, 'In your boyhood you took it a great deal; now you must stop, and you must keep your wife and sister from lewd deeds'; or he calls a baldhead bald; or calls a fool with swollen testicles just that; or calls a whore a whore, then by the curse of truth these people take mortal offense at him, and if they have the power they will set upon him then and there with a beating; and if it is only some feeble cuckold or helpless baldhead, he will fall to squabbling and bickering, hurling every kind of insolence at him; and for the rest of his life, because of that one true word, the feud between them will never end. For this reason the elders have said: 'An expedient lie is better than a truth that stirs up strife,' and what proof is clearer than this: if a truthful man gives a hundred true testimonies, they feel no gratitude to him but rather resent him bitterly and invent excuses to call him a liar; while if some man without conscience gives false testimony, they bribe him a hundred ways and treat him with every kindness to get that testimony out of him. Just as today in the lands of Islam thousands of judges, sheikhs, jurists, notaries, and their followers make their living exactly this way. They say: A lie that gladdens your heart on the spot is better than a truth that leaves you troubled. As for mercy and compassion, our masters utterly reject this sort, saying that whoever shows mercy to a wronged or deprived soul has committed a sin and exposed himself to divine wrath; on the grounds that nothing happens without God's will. Whatever reaches His servants from His presence, and He is all wise, does not reach them until it is due; as Plato says, 'A thing is not found unless it is warranted.' He who is the Most Merciful of the merciful, had He known that a person did not deserve that affliction, would not have sent it to him; whatever befalls anyone, he deserves it: Better a hungry dog, a blind crow, a scrawny goat. And they also say: There is no blind man who is not worthy of his blindness. So if you wish to show mercy to a person whom God has made the object of His wrath, you have committed sin, become a sinner over it, and on the Day of Resurrection you will be called to account for it. This is like a man beating his own slave for discipline, and a stranger fondling and kissing the slave, saying, 'Your master does wrong to beat you; he ought to be giving you gifts and fine robes!' Of course the master takes deadly offense at such a person. A tale: In the blessed time of the Prophet, they used to tell the unbelievers to feed the poor. They would answer, 'The poor are God's own servants; if He wished, He would feed them. Since He does not feed them, why should we?' as the glorious Quran records: 'Shall we feed one whom, if God willed, He would feed? You are in nothing but manifest error.' So it is a duty to show mercy to no creature, and to pay no attention to any wronged person, any criminal, any needy one, any afflicted or captive or wounded man, any orphan, any burdened father, any dervish, or any servant grown old or crippled at someone's door; rather, for the sake of God, one should inflict on them as much harm as one can, so that it becomes a means of raising one's own rank and gaining rewards, and on the Day of Resurrection, the day when neither wealth nor sons avail, he may take you by the hand. This is what was promised to the brothers at the head of the book. There is hope that if the beginner keeps up these preferred traits of the great, and makes them a settled habit of his rational soul, he will reap their fruit most fully in this world and the next.