Chapter Eight: On the Etiquette of Company

Wealth exists to ease your life, not your life to pile up wealth. A wise man was asked, 'Who is fortunate, and what is misfortune?' He said, 'The fortunate one enjoyed what he had and planted for others; the wretched one died and left it all behind.' Say no funeral prayer for the man who did nothing but spend his whole life chasing money and never enjoyed it.

Moses, peace be upon him, advised Korah: 'Do good, as God has done good to you.' He did not listen, and you have heard how he ended. The one who stored up no good deeds with his gold and silver finally buried his own head in that gold and silver. If you want to enjoy both this world and the next, be generous with people, just as God was generous with you. The Arab says: 'Give and do not remind them of your favor, for its benefit returns to you'; meaning, give freely and put no one under obligation, since the profit comes back to yourself. Wherever the tree of generosity takes root, its branches and crown rise past the heavens. If you hope to enjoy its fruit, do not set the saw of obligation to its trunk. Thank God that you were granted the grace to do good, and that, through His bounty and favor, He did not leave you idle. Do not feel you are doing the king a favor by serving him; know instead that the favor is his, for letting you serve.

Two kinds of people wear themselves out for nothing and labor without gain: the one who piles up wealth but never uses it, and the one who gathers knowledge but never acts on it. No matter how much learning you read, if you don't act on it, you're still ignorant. He is neither a scholar nor a wise man, just a beast of burden loaded with a few books. What does that empty-headed creature know or care whether it carries firewood or a notebook?

Knowledge is meant to nourish your faith, not to fill your belly with the world's goods. Whoever sold off restraint, learning, and devotion gathered up a harvest, then watched it burn to ash.

A learned man without restraint is a blind torchbearer: he carries the light but casts none. Anyone who gambles his life away gains nothing; he throws his gold aside and buys nothing with it.

A kingdom takes its beauty from the wise, and faith reaches its perfection through the devout. Kings need the company of the wise far more than the wise need to be close to kings. If you will hear one piece of advice, king, in all the world there is none better than this: Give the running of affairs only to the wise, even though managing affairs is not the work the wise prefer.

Three things never last: wealth without trade, knowledge without discussion, and power without governance.

To show mercy to the wicked is cruelty to the good; to pardon oppressors is injustice to the poor. When you care for a scoundrel and treat him kindly, he uses your favor to sin as if you were his partner in it.

Don't trust the friendship of kings, or the sweet voices of children; the first turns into a fantasy, the second changes with a single night's sleep. Don't give your heart to someone loved by a thousand others; and if you do, be ready to lose that heart to separation.

Whatever secret you carry in your heart, do not share it with a friend, for who knows when he might become an enemy? And any harm you could do, do not inflict it on an enemy, for who knows when he might become a friend? A secret you want kept hidden, tell it to no one, even a sincere friend, for that friend also has his own sincere friends, and so it goes, on and on. Silence is better than telling someone what lies deep in your heart and then saying, 'Do not repeat it.' My innocent friend, shut off the water at its source, for once the stream has filled, you cannot dam it. Do not say in private what should not be said in public.

A weak enemy who submits and pretends friendship wants only one thing: to grow into a strong enemy. As they say, you cannot rely even on the loyalty of friends, so how much less on the flattery of enemies. And whoever looks down on a small enemy is like someone who ignores a tiny flame. Kill it today, while it can still be killed, for once the fire rises high, it burns the whole world. Don't let him draw the bowstring, this enemy you could have pinned down with a single arrow.

Speak between two enemies in a way that, if they become friends, you won't be left ashamed. The quarrel between two people is like a fire, and the wretched gossip is the one who hauls the firewood. The two of them make peace and grow fond of each other again, while he is left in the middle, luckless and disgraced. Lighting a fire between two people is foolish, especially when you end up burning in the middle of it yourself. Keep your voice down when you talk with friends, so a bloodthirsty enemy can't overhear. Be careful what you say in front of a wall, in case there are ears behind it.

Anyone who makes peace with your enemies means to harm your friends. So, wise one, let go of the friend who sits and keeps company with your enemies.

When you hesitate over a decision, choose the side that will cause the least harm. Do not speak harshly to easygoing people; with someone who reaches out in peace, do not seek a fight. As long as a matter can be settled with money, there is no need to put your life at risk. As the Arabs say: the sword is the last resort. When every other trick has failed, it is right to lay your hand on the sword.

Do not show mercy to a helpless enemy, for if he gains power, he will not spare you. When you see your enemy weak, do not boast and twirl your mustache in pride; there is marrow in every bone, and a real man hidden inside every shirt.

Whoever destroys an evil person frees people from his harm, and frees him too from the punishment of God almighty. Mercy is admirable, but don't lay a healing salve on the wound of someone who torments others. The one who took pity on the snake never realized that such pity is a cruelty against the children of Adam.

Taking advice from an enemy is a mistake, yet hearing it is fine, so that you can do the opposite, which is exactly the right thing. Beware of whatever your enemy tells you; if you do it, you will slap your knee in regret. Even if he points you to a road as straight as an arrow, turn away from him and take the road to the left.

Too much anger breeds terror, and kindness at the wrong moment strips away your authority. Don't be so harsh that people grow sick of you, nor so soft that they grow bold against you. Firmness and gentleness together are best, like the surgeon who cuts, then applies the healing balm. The wise take neither the path of harshness nor of weakness that would diminish their worth. They neither set themselves above others, nor surrender all at once to humiliation. A shepherd said to his father: wise one, teach me one piece of seasoned advice. He replied: be a good and decent man, but not so much that the sharp-toothed wolf grows insolent.

Two people are the enemies of country and faith: a king without patience and a devout man without knowledge. May no country ever have a ruler in charge who is not himself an obedient servant of God.

A king should never let his anger against his enemies burn so hot that his friends lose their trust in him. The fire of anger first scorches the one who holds it, and only then does its flame reach the enemy, if it reaches him at all. It does not suit the children of Adam, born from dust, to fill their heads with arrogance, harshness, and pride. With all this heat and defiance in you, I would think you were made of fire, not dust. In the land of Baylaqan I met a devout man and said: through your teaching, cleanse me of ignorance. He said: Go, be patient like the dust, my learned friend, or bury everything you have studied beneath the dust.

A bad-tempered person is trapped in the grip of an enemy: wherever he goes, he cannot escape the punishment that enemy deals out. Even if a bad-tempered man flees disaster and climbs to the heavens, his own foul temper will keep him mired in disaster.

When you see division break out among your enemies, stay united. But if they come together, worry about the trouble ahead. Go sit at ease among your friends when you see your enemies at war with one another. But if you see them speaking with one voice, string your bow and pile stones on the rampart.

When an enemy has run out of every trick, he tugs at the chain of friendship, and then, in the guise of a friend, he does things no enemy ever could.

Crush the snake's head with your enemy's hand, for you cannot lose either way: if your enemy wins, the snake is dead; if the snake wins, you are rid of an enemy. On the day of battle, do not feel safe from a weak foe, for once he gives up on his life, he can smash even a lion's skull.

When you know a piece of news that will wound someone's heart, stay silent and let someone else deliver it. Nightingale, bring the good news of spring; leave the bad news to the owl.