The Sciences of Inheritance Shares and Prose Composition

( The Science of the Inheritance Shares (al-farāʼiḍ) )

The men of the shares are included among the jurists, since it is one book among the books of jurisprudence. It is a handsome science, but driving deep into it makes one lose the time, and a middle course in it is good — for how many a question in it has never occurred and never will occur.

( The Science of Prose Composition (al-inshāʼ) )

Prose composition is the art of the sons of this world; it is no part of the knowledge of the hereafter at all. The man who is complete in it needs a strong share in the Islamic sciences, and it calls for a perfect mind, for gravity, quickness of understanding, strength of imagination, discernment in the lexicon and in grammar, expertise in the sciences of meanings and of figures (al-maʻānī wa-al-bayān), in biography and in the days of men, in the arts of belles-lettres, and a fine hand. But let the composer's capital be the fear of God and mindfulness of Him. For he may set down a word that pleases him and by it plunge into the Fire without knowing; and he may bring off something brilliant in a single line upon which the ruin of a whole city follows; and he may lend his pen, by that eloquence, to the shedding of blood. So look where you stand, O eloquent man! Your Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, censured eloquence, and said “Some eloquence is surely sorcery”,(1) and he said, God bless him and grant him peace, “Halting speech (al-ʻayy) is part of faith.” So make the brilliance of your eloquence complete by the pleasing of your Lord Most High and by sincere counsel to the master of the command; for here lies the perfection of eloquence, if you are among the God-fearing. And if that proves impossible, then your religion — there is no substitute for it

— Notes —

[27] (1) One wonders: on the side of eloquence, is this praise or a slur!