Part Two: on the particular branches of good character — Chapter One: the counsels of the sages and the precepts profitable in every field

and mastery, and the satisfying of the appetites' craving — both of them content, in these, with what the intellect and the revealed Law have shown them, and holding fast to the rulings of the true Law (sharīʻah) in all states and all deeds; for these are the deeds that bring a man through to everlasting felicity and draw him near to the Eternal Presence. For the foundation of the virtues (faḍāʼil, sg. faḍīlah) and their mainstay is the return to the kingdom of the Presence and the arrival at the court of the Lord of Might; for in Him the pleasures are gathered, and He is the utmost term of all felicities.

Part Two: on the particular branches of the excellences of character (akhlāq)

( Chapter One of it ) on the counsels of the sages and the profitable precepts

He who seeks perfection must know the roots of things and their branches, and must begin by securing the roots; for many men have lost all attainment by abandoning the roots, as has been said: whoever loses the roots is denied attainment. And if, after securing the roots, he then hits upon the branches, that is better still. The root of the matter in religion is that a man hold firm to faith, keep clear of the grave sins, and discharge the obligatory duties. Cleave to that as one cleaves who cannot do without it for the blink of an eye, and who knows that whoever is denied it perishes — then, if you can pass beyond that to jurisprudence (fiqh) and devotion, that is better. The root of the matter in the body's well-being is that it not be burdened in food, drink and coition with more than its due; then, if you can come to know all that profits the body and all that harms it, and how it is to be used, that is better. The root of the matter among men is that you not so much as speak to yourself of retreat while your companions are advancing upon their enemy; then, if you can be the first to charge and the last to turn away, without throwing caution aside, do so, for that is better. The root of the matter in liberality is that a man not withhold from people what is owed them; then, if you can give the one with a claim more than his claim, and be generous to one who has no claim at all, that is better. The root of the matter in speech is to come away free of blunders by keeping guard; then, if you can attain the surpassing right word, that is better. The root of the matter in livelihood is deliberateness in seeking what is lawful, and measuring well what one spends; and let no abundance you happen to be in delude you out of this, for the greatest of men in this world are the ones most in need of measure. Then, if you can attain gentleness and delicacy in the seeking, and knowledge of what is to be sought and how gains are made, that is better. Reason by this analogy in observing the roots and setting them before the branches in all matters. And know that everything has a cause and an occasion. The cause of a pleasant life is dealing gently with people; the cause of gentle dealing is fullness of intellect; the cause of ease is making things easy; the cause of increase is gratitude; the cause of the passing away of blessings is insolence; the cause of chastity is the lowering of the gaze; the cause of ruin is anger; the cause of adornment is good breeding (adab); the cause of debauchery is solitude; the cause of hatred is a hot temper; the cause of love is the gift; the cause of repose is a humble station; the cause of brotherhood is a cheerful face; the cause of estrangement is much reproaching. The cause of poverty is extravagance; the cause of wealth is good management. The cause of loathing is the swearing of oaths; the cause of affliction is disputation; the cause of contempt is greed; the cause of praise is open-handedness; the cause of trade is truthfulness; the cause of success is gentleness; the cause of abasement is asking; the cause of deprivation is breakage; the cause of elevation is good leadership; the cause of attainment is to forgo the wish for more; the cause of revulsion is boastfulness; the cause of riches is to alight in the courtyard of kings. And the cause of all good whatsoever is the intellect's mastery over caprice. A sage was asked: what is gladness? He said: an intellect that keeps you upright, a knowledge that adorns you, a child who gladdens you, wealth that gives you room, a security that sets you at rest, and a soundness of body that gathers the delights together for you. And know that there are matters which are set right only by their concomitants: knowledge profits nothing without scrupulousness, nor beauty without sweetness, nor noble descent without breeding, nor gladness without security, nor riches without liberality, nor manliness (murūʼah) without humility, nor a heavy hand without heavy punishment, nor a modest manner of living without sufficiency, nor strenuous effort without the granting of success (tawfīq). And it has been said: the happy man is he in whom the intellect is the most abundant of his natural parts and knowledge the best of his stores; nothing enriches him but contentment, nothing makes him safe but innocence, nothing obliges increase for him but gratitude, and nothing turns hardships away from him but prayer. Whoever lacks intellect, authority adds no honour to him; and whoever lacks contentment, wealth adds no riches to him. And it has been said: revere him who is above you, be gentle with him who is below you, and deal handsomely with your equals. And as it has been said: revere their elder, show mercy to their young, and observe in the creation the right of Him who created it; and be more dutiful still in how you meet your equals — for this bears witness for you that your honouring of those above you is no abasement before them, and that your gentleness toward those below you is no covetousness of what they have. And if you come to have the upper hand over your equals, do not grudge them a clear heart. Measure well both your livelihood and your hereafter, with a measure in which neither spoils the other for you; and if that defeats you, cast off the lesser and prefer the greater. And never commit a shameful act at any time, neither in privacy nor in another's company; and let your shame before yourself be greater than your shame before anyone else. And know that the promptings of the appetites, when the things they want are joined to them, are as firewood to fire and as water to fish; but when you withhold those things from them and come between them and what they crave, they go out as a fire goes out when the wood fails, and they perish and dwindle away as fish perish when the water fails. And never make light of any error that runs against the soundness of your judgment; for whoever makes light of a small thing, it is not long before another small thing joins it, until the small becomes great. It is but a narrow spring (balam) (1), which the incapacity and the negligence in your intellect open up; and if it is not stopped, before long it bursts out with what no stopping can withstand. And you have never seen a great matter but it came from the side of some small thing that was held in contempt. For sicknesses may come from the side of what is despised in them, until from that a man is overrun by an incurable disease; and rivers burst out of small holes that were thought nothing of; and a great blaze comes of a small spark, as has been said: and the greatness of a fire is from a spark men held too small And beware of quarrelling with your household, your child, your friend, and the weak; and do not turn a friend bad over a single slip that escapes him; and do not blame anyone for what may well admit of excuse until you know what his excuse is; and do not aim a reproach at every lapse, and let your reproach be a schooling and not a scolding. For the worst schooling is that which makes things hard, and the best of it is that which makes them easy. And let the means by which you turn torment and hurt away from yourself be that you not be envious. And know that envy is a base trait of character (khulq), and part of its baseness is that it fastens upon the nearest and then the next nearest among one's equals, kin and associates. Torment those who envy you by doing them good. And manage your enemy with an eye to two things: either the hope of a friendship that will make you safe, or an opportunity that will put him in your power. And do not tell him that you are his enemy, for then you gladden him with your grief, drive him to arm himself against you, and kindle his fire upon you. And it magnifies your standing to let your enemy see that you do not take him for an enemy; for that leaves him off his guard and gives you a way to power over him. And if you can pardon his enmity and rise above repaying it, you have made your greatness of worth and station complete. But if you are one who repays enmity and harm, then beware of repaying a secret enmity with an open one, or a private enmity with a public one; for that is wrong-doing and great disgrace.

And know that not every enmity is repaid in kind — treachery, for instance. And theft is not repaid with theft. And do not take cursing and abuse for a weapon against your enemy, for it wounds neither person nor property nor religion; so do not befoul yourself with what does your enemy no harm. Yet do not for all that give up the reckoning up of his faults and the hiding of them from him, so that you may bring them out in their place when there is need. And know that seldom has anyone begun with something he knows to be in himself, and has been hoping to hide from people, and then thrown it in an enemy's face before a ruler or before another, without his own face and eye and tongue all but bearing witness against him, together with the breaking-down and the slackening that come over him at that moment on the instant. So the man of intellect must beware of this state, steel himself against it, and be ready in advance to guard against it.

Train yourself to bear with those well-wishers who contradict you, and to swallow the bitterness of their words and their censure. And do not make that way easy except to men of intellect and years, lest some fool grow bold with you or some ill-wisher make light of you. And if you are afflicted with folly from a fool, beware of following his pattern and meeting him with his own folly; for if you hold that blameworthy, then make your blame of it good by declining to answer him, and guard your honour by turning away from him — for in a quarrel the worst of men is beaten by none but one worse than he. And if you are in company, do not sweep a whole people into abuse or blame, and do not disparage any name out of the names of men and women; for you do not know, and it may be that you are laying hold of some part of the honour of those sitting with you, or of their names, or of the names of those attached to them, and it cuts into their hearts; and the tongue's wound, for the injury it works, is like the spear's. And let your companion and your friend know that you are solicitous for his companion and his friend, and let him see in you no aversion to his companions and his helpers, for that reopens the wounds in hearts; and your kindness to your companion's companion falls better with him than your kindness to himself. And guard against gladness in the presence of the grief-stricken, and know that he bears a grudge against the man who talks much and grows quiet with one who is downcast. And keep clear of the intimacy of the self-satisfied ingrate, of the society of the man of bad character, of eating with the shameless glutton, and of disputing with the eloquent man of letters; and keep clear of insistence and wrangling with your brethren, even if you are sharp of tongue — And do not be forever laying claim to knowledge of everything that comes up, for above every man of knowledge there is one who knows more. And in this you stand between two disgraces: either they contend with you over what you claimed, and you are set upon as ignorant and blustering; or they do not contend with you and let the two matters go out of your hands, and what is seen in you is bluster and pretension. And if you find in yourself some excellence, and then put yourself forward to mention it and display it, know that its appearing from you in that manner fixes more reproach in people's hearts than it fixes excellence to your credit; and that if you are patient and do not hurry, it will appear from you in the fair and acknowledged manner. And when you are gathered with the learned, let them know of you that you are keener to listen than to speak. If you want the garment of beauty, and to be adorned with it, and to draw affection by it from the select and the common sort, and to walk a road with no stumbling in it, then be learned as though ignorant and speaking as though dull-witted; for speech, when you have need of it, will answer you to your need, while silence earns you love and gravity. And if you see a man relating a story you already know, or reporting a report you have already heard, do not join in on it with him, nor spoil it for him out of eagerness to let people know that you knew it; for in that there is levity, bad breeding, and meanness. And know that your tongue is an instrument contended for: your intellect and your anger struggle over the mastery of it, and whichever masters it takes its enjoyment of it and turns it to what it likes. So when your intellect masters it, it is yours; and if not, it belongs to your enemy. Strive, then, that it belong to none but you. And speak to none but one who counts your talk a prize; and whoever does not spread himself out for your talk, lift from him the burden of listening, unless necessity overcomes you. And learn to listen well as you learn to speak well. Part of good listening is giving the speaker his time until he has finished what he is saying, looking away at others but little, not turning hastily to the answer, and facing the speaker and keeping your eyes on him until he has brought his speech to its completion. And do not mix jest into earnest, nor earnest into jest; for if you mix jest into earnest you make it ignoble, and if you mix earnest into jest you muddy it — save in one situation only: if you can meet earnest there with jest, you have hit upon the right judgment and have shown yourself above your peers in it. That is, when someone comes at you rashly with folly and anger and gross blundering, and you answer him as a jester answers who wishes him well, with a broad breast, an open face, and steadiness of speech.

It is part of a man's bad fellowship that a blessing he sees in his companion weighs upon him, so that among the things by which he eases himself, in belittling his companion and muddying his blessing, is to speak of how blessings pass away and dominions come to an end, as though he were a preacher or a judge — and it is no secret that his words do not fall in the place of admonition, but in the place of vexation at the blessing, and grief over it, and the relief of talking it away. And know that stories will pass your way that please you, whether pretty or striking, and that you will then be eager for other people to marvel at them; but not everything that pleases you pleases another. So when you have spread such a thing once or twice and have not seen it fall with the hearers as it fell with you, hold back from returning to it; for marvelling at what is no marvel is a grievous lapse. And when your brother attains some added rank from the ruler, do not let him see that this advancement has increased your affection for him, and let him not find in you any self-abasement toward him on the strength of his past brotherhood; rather let him see that his authority has increased your reverence and honouring of him. And do not gauge the matters between you and him by what you used to know of his character (akhlāq), for characters are transformed where power is. And if, in the newness of a dominion, you see an affair that has come right without judgment or resolve, and helpers who have prevailed without virtue or desert, do not be deceived by it, and do not make much of its business; for that affair settles into its course, and then things come back to their realities and their roots. And it has been said: the ignorant man's dominion is like a stranger, who yearns for his homeland by departing; and the intelligent man's dominion is like a kinsman, who yearns for his place by staying on.

Break your soul in by bearing with the bad neighbour and the bad companion at table; for the most deficient of men is he who injures his neighbour and his companion. As has been said: bear with the injury of your bad neighbour — either he will move away or he will die.

And know that the base are the more enduring in body and the noble the more enduring in soul, because endurance of what bodies meet with is among the qualities of beasts, while the praiseworthy endurance is that a man be a conqueror of his own soul, wary of caprice, a bearer of the hardships whose outcome is hoped to be good, and steadfast in the struggle against the appetites. And train yourself to open-handedness. And know that open-handedness is of two kinds: a man's open-handedness with what is in his own hand, and his open-handedness in abstaining from what is in the hands of others. The first of them is the nearer to having boastfulness enter into it, while the leaving of what is in others' hands is purer in nobility and further from defilement. So if a man joins the two together, giving freely and keeping himself clean, he has made liberality and nobility complete. And know that unmixed nobility is the keeping of obligations, and that coveting what others have comes of baseness of soul and lowness of aspiration. And beware of boasting, when you know what you were made from and what you are coming to, and that you carry about what is in your belly, and that you are put together out of things whose nature is to dissolve and to pass from one state to another. And beware of lying, for it comes of nothing but contemptibleness of soul, flimsiness of judgment, and ignorance of where its harm ends. And the least of its harms is that it be said, 'So-and-so is not to be believed,' so that the weight of your word falls from people's eyes. And beware of swearing oaths even when you are truthful; and as for swearing when you are lying, shun it with the utmost shunning. And know that the thing most ruinous to religion, most wearing to the body, most wasteful of money, most harmful to the intellect, and swiftest in carrying off dignity and gravity, is being enticed by women. And part of the affliction upon the man deluded by them is that he never ceases to dislike what he has and to covet what others have. For women are all alike, and what appears to eyes and to hearts of the superiority of the unknown among them over those already known is false and a deception. Indeed, much of what a man already has is better than what his soul longs after. And the man who turns from what is in his own tent of them to what is in another's tents is like the man who turns from the food of his house to the foods in other people's houses — and indeed women resemble women more closely than food resembles food. So be on your guard against this vice with the utmost guard.

Do not rejoice in idleness, though there be rest in it, and do not grieve at work, though there be toil in it. And seize of the good what you have hastened to, and of the caprices what you have put off. And know that good is a matter of overcoming, and that grasping greed is a way of being denied. He who is slain in war advancing is better than he who is slain retreating. And he who seeks with moderation and nobility comes through to what he seeks more often than he who seeks with gluttony and greed. And the getting of what one needs from people is not possible save by delicacy in the asking, softness of speech, good forbearance, and little compulsion. And do not scoff at money and its increase, for money is an instrument of noble deeds, a help against the times, a strength for religion, and a means of gathering brethren. And with the loss of money goes people's little regard, and after it follows little desire for a man and little fear of him; and whoever is in no position to be desired or feared, people make light of him. A sage was asked: why do you gather money, being a sage? He said: to guard my honour by it, to accomplish my purpose by it, and to have no need of borrowing by it. And do not go forward to sleep until you have reviewed the deeds you did in the whole of your day and those you did not do: whenever you have done something hateful, let it startle you; whenever you have done something pleasing, let it gladden you; and if you have left undone what it was your duty to do, then blame yourself for the shortfall, so that you may be held back from what you find hateful, and may hold to what is due, and may make good what you fell short in. And beware of exposing yourself to a blameworthy affair, for what you hold blameworthy in another will not be praiseworthy in you. And beware of supposing that your good deeds swallow up your bad ones — far from it! For a little ill-doing in word and deed wipes out much of the good. And know that habits are overpowering: whoever accustoms himself to something in his secret and in his solitudes, it exposes him in his public life before the assembly. So strive to acquire the fair habits and to keep clear of the vicious ones. And among their sayings: the debauchee is never found praised, nor the wrathful man glad, nor the freeborn man grasping, nor the noble man envious, nor the glutton rich, nor the easily wearied possessed of brethren; nor is a man of intellect found who talks to one whose disbelief he fears, or asks of one whose refusal he fears, or promises what he does not trust himself to fulfil, or hopes for what his hoping will be rebuked for, or presses forward upon what he fears he will be unequal to. ( the counsel (waṣīyah) of the Persians ) Be truthful, that you may be trusted in what you say; and be a keeper of covenant, that your covenant may be kept; and be grateful, that you may deserve increase; and be open-handed, that you may be worthy of the good; and be merciful to the afflicted, that you not be tried with affliction; and be loving, that you not be a mine for the characters of devils; and be attentive to your own business, that you not be taken to account for what you never committed. And be humble, that men may rejoice at the good that comes to you; and be learned, that your eye may rest content in what you have been given; and rejoice for people in the good, that envy may not hurt you; and be wary, that your fear may not be long; and do not be rancorous, lest you do your own contented soul a lasting harm; and be modest, that you may not come to regret before the learned — for the man of intellect's fear of the censure of the learned (1) is fiercer than his fear of an overbearing ruler. ( the counsel of Luqmān to his son ) Be grave in hardship, patient in what is hateful, thankful in ease. Do not despise one who obeys God, and do not honour one who disobeys God. Do not claim what is not yours, and do not deny what is owed by you. Do not expose yourself to falsehood. Do not say what you do not know. Do not undertake what you cannot bear. Do not put on greatness; do not boast; do not fret; do not slander; do not backbite. If you are wronged, forgive; and if you are treated well, give thanks; and if you are tried, be patient. Keep the lessons of the past, and beware the turns of fortune. And it has been said: magnify your worth by feigning not to notice the base sort of affairs; and hold the last breath in the weak man by helping him; and train your intellects in the breeding of every age, and run with the people of that age along their own roads, and then few will quarrel with you and your honour will come away safe. And lay down from off yourselves the burden of contradiction and cavilling in dispute, for it may bequeath rancours and undo the tight-twisted cord of affections. And let not the proud man covet fair praise, nor the deceiver (1) many friends, nor the ill-bred man honour, nor the grasping man the sweetness of life. Another said: whoever hates disgrace, let him keep clear of five traits — greed, stinginess, contempt for people, the following of caprice, and the putting off of a promise. And it has been said: do not take a deceiver for a brother; do not look for victory from the incapable; do not seek the aid of a sluggard; and do not reckon the debauched scholar a scholar, nor the deceiving ascetic an ascetic, nor the brother who abandons you a brother, nor him who does a favour to an ingrate a benefactor, nor him in whose eyes this world is great a man of intellect. And if you see that your soul has come to think this world small and calls you to renounce it (zahādah) while your circumstances are straitened, let that not delude you about your soul in that state; for it is not renunciation, but vexation and weakness, and a turning of the soul away from what of the world defeated it, and an anger on your part against the world for what of it went crooked with you. For if you set your face to casting it off and held back from seeking it, you would soon see in yourself such vexation

— Notes —

[39] «1» al-balam: narrow springs; and yablimuhā refers to their bursting forth. (end)

[49] (1) What is meant by the learned are those who act upon their knowledge, not such as praise and blame for a personal end; for the like of these are devils. (end)

[50] (1) al-khibb is the deceiver; it is with kasrah on the khāʼ, named after the verbal noun. — (end)