Chapter Four: On the Benefits of Silence

I told one of my friends: my reluctance to speak comes from a deliberate choice, since most of the time when people talk, good and bad get mixed together, and the eyes of enemies notice only the bad. He replied: it is better that an enemy sees no good at all. The one bound by enmity never passes by a good man without slandering him as an arrogant liar. In the eye of hatred, talent looks like the greatest fault. Saadi is a flower, but in the eyes of his enemies he is a thorn. The world-illuminating light of the sun's spring seems ugly to the eye of a blind little mouse.

A merchant suffered a loss of a thousand dinars. He told his son: 'You must not mention this to anyone.' The son replied: 'Father, your command holds; I will say nothing. But I would like to understand the benefit of it: what is the wisdom in keeping it secret?' The father said: 'So the misfortune does not double: first the loss of the money, and second the gloating of the neighbors.' Do not tell your sorrow to your enemies, for they will sigh 'God help us' while rejoicing inside.

A wise young man was richly gifted in the arts and virtues, yet shy by nature. Whenever he sat in the gatherings of scholars, he held his tongue and said nothing. One day his father said: My son, you too should share what you know. He replied: I fear they will ask me about something I do not know, and then I will be ashamed. Haven't you heard how a Sufi was hammering a few nails under the soles of his own sandals? An officer grabbed him by the sleeve and said: Come here and nail some shoes onto my horse.

A respected scholar got into a debate with one of the heretics, may God curse them one by one, but his arguments could not win the day; so he threw down his shield and walked away. Someone asked him: with all the learning and refinement you possess, could you not hold your ground against one godless man? He replied: my knowledge rests on the Quran, the traditions of the Prophet, and the words of the masters, and this man believes in none of them and will not listen. What good is it to me to sit and hear his blasphemy? The one whom neither the Quran nor the sacred word can save, the only answer for him is this: give him no answer at all.

Galen saw a fool grabbing a scholar by the collar and insulting him. He said: If this man were not a fool, things would never have come to a quarrel with fools like him. Two wise people never fall into hatred and fighting, nor does a learned person quarrel with a frivolous mind. If an ignorant man speaks harshly out of blind rage, the wise man wins him over gently. Two thoughtful people hold themselves in check by a thread, balancing pride with a wish for peace. But if both sides are ignorant, they will snap the chain, even if it is made of iron. A crude, ill-natured man cursed someone; he bore it patiently and said: My good friend, I am worse than whatever you will call me, for I know my faults, and you cannot know them as I do.

They call Sahban of Wa'il unmatched in eloquence, because he once spoke before a large gathering for a whole year and never repeated a single phrase; and whenever the same idea came up again, he expressed it in different words. Among the rules of conduct for a king's companions, this is one: However charming and sweet a saying may be, deserving of praise and full agreement, once you have said it, do not say it again, for when sweets are eaten once, that is enough.

I heard one of the wise men say: no one ever admits their own ignorance, except the person who, while another is still speaking and hasn't finished, jumps in and starts talking. Speech has a beginning and an end, wise one; don't drop your words in the middle of someone else's. A person of judgment, learning, and intelligence won't speak until they see it's time for silence to end.

A few of Mahmoud's servants asked Hasan of Meymand: 'What did the sultan tell you today about a certain matter?' He said: 'It will not stay hidden from you either.' They said: 'What he tells you, he would not think proper to tell people like us.' He said: 'It is because he trusts that I will not repeat it. So why do you keep asking?' A person of discernment does not blurt out every word that comes to mind; you should not gamble away your own life over the king's secret.

I was hesitating over the deal to buy a house. A Jewish man said: Look, I'm one of the elders of this neighborhood; ask me for the true account of this house. Buy it, it has no flaw at all. I said: None, except that you are my neighbor! A house that has a neighbor like you is worth ten dirhams of debased silver. But one should stay hopeful that after your death it will be worth a thousand.

A poet once went to the chief of a band of thieves and recited a poem in his praise. The chief ordered them to strip off his clothes and drive him out of the village. The poor man walked naked through the cold, and the dogs came chasing after him. He tried to pick up a stone to fend them off, but it was frozen into the ground, and he could not. So he said: 'What kind of scoundrels are these people, who set the dogs loose and tie down the stones!' The chief saw and heard this from his upper window and laughed. He said: 'Wise man, ask something of me.' The poet replied: 'I ask only for my own clothes, if you would grant me that favor.' We are content with your bounty: just let us go. A person hopes for kindness from others; I expect no kindness from you, so at least do me no harm. The chief of thieves felt pity for him. He gave back his clothes, added a fur-lined coat as well, and a few coins on top of it.

An astrologer came home and found a stranger sitting with his wife. He hurled insults and curses, and an uproar broke out. A wise man who understood the situation said: How can you know what lies at the height of the heavens, when you don't even know who is inside your own house?

A preacher with a grating voice thought himself a fine singer and kept raising his pointless shouts. You would think the croak of the raven of separation was the melody behind his song, or that the verse 'truly the ugliest of voices' was written about him. When the preacher, that father of horsemen, brays, his uproar could shatter the fortress of Persia. Because of his social standing, the villagers endured his affliction and thought it unwise to protest. Until one of the region's preachers, who bore him a secret grudge, came to visit and said: I dreamed a dream about you, may it be a good omen. The man asked: what did you see? He replied: I saw that your voice was sweet, and people were at ease with your recitation. The preacher thought about this for a moment and said: this is a blessed dream you have seen, for you have made me aware of my own fault. Now I know my voice is unpleasant, and that people suffer from my loud reciting. I repent, and from now on I will deliver the sermon only softly. I grow weary of a friend's company, for he makes my bad character look good. He sees my flaw as talent and perfection, my thorn he makes appear as rose and jasmine. Where is that brazen, impure enemy, to show me my own faults?

In the mosque of Sanjar there was a man who gave the call to prayer as a volunteer, but he delivered it in a way that filled the listeners with disgust. The mosque belonged to an emir who was just and good-natured, and he did not want to wound the man's feelings. So he said: 'My good fellow, this mosque already has its old muezzins, and I have arranged five dinars for each of them. I will give you ten dinars if you go somewhere else.' They agreed on this, and the man left. After a while he came upon the emir again on a street and said: 'My lord, you did me wrong when you drove me out of that spot for ten dinars, for where I have gone now they offer me twenty dinars to move on to yet another place, and I still refuse!' The emir laughed until he could not stop, and said: 'Careful! Do not accept, for they will soon be glad to give you fifty!' No one scrapes clay from the face of solid granite with a pickaxe the way your harsh voice scrapes at the heart.

A man with an ugly voice was reciting the Quran loudly. A wise man passed by and asked, 'How much are you paid for this?' 'Nothing,' he said. 'Then why do you put yourself through all this trouble?' the wise man asked. 'I recite for the sake of God,' he replied. The wise man said, 'For God's sake, don't recite.' If you keep reciting the Quran in this manner, you will ruin the good name of Islam.