Section: On Caution

may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Good is abundant, and few are those who do it.” And one of the sages said: better than the good is the doer of good, and worse than the evil is the doer of evil

Section

(On Caution)

As for the fourth section, which is caution (al-ḥadhar): Time is in revolt with its sudden strokes and estranging in its calamities; it breaks faith though it has kept faith, and it kills if it slips. For this reason it was said among the scattered sayings of wisdom (manthūr al-ḥikam): the world takes back its gift, and Time is envious, coming upon nothing without altering it. ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd said: the world is attained by him who is wary of it, and the world attains him who feels safe from it. And ʻAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān said: beware the two renewing ones (al-jadīdān), for the decrees of fate have their hours at which eyes are lowered before them. So when its sudden strokes come upon a man unwary and easily led, he becomes a target for its unerring arrows and a mark for the estranging of accidents and calamities. One of the sages has said: whoever turns away from caution and vigilance, and builds his affair upon no foundation, has his might depart from him and incapacity master him. But if he sets before its sudden strokes the caution of the watchful man, and meets them with the equipment of the man on his guard, he turns back their onset with the resolve of one possessed of prudence, who has milked the full udders of his age and risen with the plain mark of his she-goat. And one of the poets has said:

Time has an onslaught, so beware it — never pass a night having felt safe from the ages

Then he, far as his caution reaches, is one who submits to a decree that is not turned back and a destiny that is not repelled. Abū al-Dardāʼ related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Beware the world, for it is more bewitching than Hārūt and Mārūt.” And it was said to one of the sages: who is the happy man? He said: he who takes a lesson from his yesterday and makes provision for himself. And one of the poets said:

I was wary of a thing, and it passed at my side — it did not make me weep, and I met what I had not feared

Caution has a limit at which it halts; if it goes beyond, it becomes faintheartedness (khawar), just as boldness has a limit which, if it goes beyond, becomes recklessness; and excess beyond limits is a defect in the thing limited. Each of the two has its season, and if they pass out of it, caution becomes cowardice and boldness becomes rashness; and the disgrace of both is measured by the prudence of the man of intellect and the wakefulness of the shrewd. It was said among the scattered sayings of wisdom: the hands of the intellects hold the reins of the souls. And one of the sages said: let the ruler know you, at the opening of a plan, for caution, and when the matter falls out, for earnestness. Caution is incumbent in four aspects: the first, caution before God the Exalted in what He has imposed; the second, caution before the ruler in what he has delegated; the third, caution before the age in what it throws across one's path; and the fourth, caution against the mastery of enemies and the guile of the crafty.

As for caution before God the Exalted, it is the pillar of religion and the spur to obedience. Caution before Him is to stand by His commands and to desist from His prohibitions, so that a man acts in obedience to Him in what He has commanded and abstains from disobeying Him in what He has forbidden. For you will never see a man of little caution but that he is lax in his religion and unbridled in his excess; he sees no right guidance in what is at hand and stands under threat in what is to come, while souls recoil from him and blame runs through him. It was said in one of the earliest scriptures (al-ṣuḥuf al-ūlā): might and strength magnify the heart, and better than both is the fear of God the Exalted; for he whom awe of God does not restrain fears no abasement and has no need of a helper. And ʻAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may God be pleased with him, said: whoever attempts a matter by disobedience to God is the farther from what he hoped and the nearer to the coming of what he feared. One of the sages said: the best of dispositions is the one that helps most toward scrupulousness (waraʻ). And one of the forebears said: you have of your world only that with which you set right your abode hereafter. And al-Buḥturī said:

O you who gather and withhold, while Time eyes you — pondering at which door it will knock upon you You have gathered wealth; then consider, have you gathered for it — O gatherer of wealth — days in which you will scatter it

As for caution before the ruler: he springs upon men with his power and rules arbitrarily with his violence; passion inclines him, so that he decides upon a surmise and calls to account upon a doubt. Trust in him is incapacity, and letting oneself go with him is peril. It has been said: three afford no safety — the ruler, the sea and time. And it was said: when the ruler changes, the age changes. Caution before him in the two states of displeasure and favour is the safer, because he imputes guilt when he grows weary, until the man who does well becomes in his eyes like the man who does ill. So win his judgement to yourself by sincere counsel, and ward off his estrangement by caution. One of the sages has said: keep company with the ruler with three things — caution, the renouncing of the turn of fortune (dawlah), and diligence in counsel. And your caution before him is by three matters: the first, that you not rely upon trust in a spirit of presumption and abandon, for trust has never brought on anything but regret, as the poet said:

I never ceased to hear: how many a trusting man is shamed — until I was tried, and became myself the trusting and shamed one

And it has been said: rashness (khurq) is presuming upon the ruler, and springing before the opportunity. So draw yourself in when he advances you, be humble toward him when he exalts you, keep your reserve before him when he treats you familiarly, be soft toward him when he is rough with you, and endure his fault-finding (tajannī) when he deals harshly with you. For he is the more able to find fault, so be the more patient in bearing it; for his courtesy toward you may be a stratagem, and his fault-finding against you a pretext. It was said in one of the earliest scriptures: the king's love and his inclination are like the dew that falls upon the grass. And the sages of al-Hind have said: the likeness of the ruler, in the little faithfulness he keeps toward his companions and the ease with which his soul does without them, is the likeness of the harlot and the schoolhouse: whenever one goes, another comes. And the Arabs say: the ruler is a man of aggression and of caprice. So give him no pretext for showing his estrangement toward you, for he may acknowledge the right and keep faith, and be softened by patience and hold back. For this reason it was said in the fables of Kalīlah wa-Dimnah: the companion of the ruler is like the rider of a lion — people fear him, while he fears his mount the more. And Muṣʻab ibn Manṣūr related from ʻUqbah ibn ʻĀmir from the Prophet, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, that he said: “Happy is he who is admonished by another's example.” And his poet Ḥassān ibn Thābit said.

And do not trust beguiling Time, for I — I follow the judgement of one who does not trust Time

The second, in your caution before him: that you assist him in his aims and fall in with his likes and his inclinations; and that you not turn him back from a purpose so long as it impugns neither religion nor honour; and that you not hold back from answering him, even if something more important has occupied you — for he will admit no excuse for you if he finds you falling short in his own purposes, even were you devoted to the interests of his kingdom. For he took you for himself first and then for his kingdom, and he may set the portion of his own soul before the interest of his kingdom, through the mastery of passion and the pull of appetite. For this reason the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “Your love of a thing blinds and deafens” — that is, it blinds one to right guidance and deafens one to admonition. So be devoted to what he wants, that his confidence in you may be sound. But if his purposes impugn religion or honour, then draw yourself out of the sin of them and guard yourself against their disgrace, by gentleness in holding off from them through something he may take in exchange for them, so that it may be easy for him to leave them; and if he goes along with you in this, both your religion is preserved and both your disgrace is removed. Abū Ḥāzim related from Sahl ibn Saʻd from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “God has storehouses of good and of evil whose keys are men; so blessed is he whom He has made a key to good and a lock against evil, and woe to him whom He has made a key to evil and a lock against good.” And one of the poets said:

You will find what you sent ahead of good brought present before you — and you are the happier for the good you do

But if he persists in them, then be soft in leaving him to them, and hold back from assisting him; and this is a deception glossed over with equivocation and hidden beneath prudence. So call your intellect to your aid in it and put your prudence to work in it, that you may be safe from his estrangement and come away free of his sin. For it is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Among the worst of men before God on the Day of Resurrection is a servant who threw away his hereafter for another man's world.”

The third, in your caution before him: that you ward off harm from his person and his kingdom with all you are able of wealth and of life; for it is your own self you are warding for, and for it that you provide. For your state cannot be sound while his state is corrupt, and you are a branch of his root. He lets himself go in his trust of you and gives himself over in his reliance upon you; so meet his trust with your trustworthiness and his surrender with your competence. And do not force him to take in hand himself the warding off of fear and the keeping of caution, lest he force you to what is more to be feared and more to be guarded against; for you fear him and you fear what he fears, so that two fears follow one upon another against you and two perils conspire against you. And the poet said:

Affliction can be borne while it is not doubled — and when it is doubled it becomes unbearable So repel your fear of him by your defence of him, and you will be safe from the two fears and sound from the two perils. And ʻĀṣim ibn ʻUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, may God be pleased with them both, said:

It is as though you had never toiled nor met with hardship — once you have attained the thing you were seeking

And know that your ruler has rights over you, and that you have the like of them over him. His rights over you are three. The first of them is your discharge of the interests of his kingdom, and these are four: the cultivation of his lands, the setting straight of his troops, the increase of his resources, and the safeguarding of his subjects. The second of his rights over you is your discharge of the interests of his own person, and these are four: the attainment of what suffices him, the bearing of the burdens that befall him, the refining of his entourage, and the readying of that with which calamities are repelled. The third of his rights over you is your discharge of the withstanding of his enemies, and this is by four things: the fortifying of the frontiers, the completing of the equipment, the ordering of the armies, and the determining of the borders. So render the rights of his authority and fulfil the terms of his entrusting; and beware the sudden stroke of his calling you to account if you fall short, and the violence of his vengeance if you are remiss. For it was said among the scattered sayings of wisdom: whoever does what he wishes meets what he does not wish. And one of the eloquent said: whoever is greedy for foul dealing is made to smart by foul requital. And know that the sudden stroke of vengeance is swifter than the appearing of bounty, because vengeance issues from the recklessness of anger while bounty issues from the deliberateness of generosity; and so vengeance may fall upon a man before caution does, even if he holds to unremitting caution. For this reason Abū Zubayd al-Ṭāʼī said:

Good does not come to you all gathered at once — while evil's flood outruns its rain

And it was said among the maxims of the Persians: how feeble is the hope of the ruler's companion for safety. And that is because if he keeps himself abstinent, his abstinence brings upon him the enmity of the inner circle (al-khāṣṣah); and if he opens his hand, that openness brings upon him the tongues of those who make a show of counsel. It is therefore incumbent upon you that your caution be more hidden than your hope, and your fear greater than your sense of safety; and even if life be made turbid by the two of them, they are the more conducive to safety. One of the sages has said: by patience under what you hate you attain what you love, and by patience with what you love you escape what you hate.

As for what corresponds to these among your rights over his authority, they are three. The first of them: his support of you in your charge, and that is by four things: the strengthening of your hand, the carrying out of your command, the giving free course to your competence, and that he set no other man's authority over you. Sābūr ibn Azdashīr said in his testament to his son Hurmuz: the vizier ought to be strong in command and accepted in speech; his station with you should keep him from abasing himself before any other, his trust in you should move him to give you sincere counsel, and what he knows of your judgment should embolden him to withstand your enemies; and I warn you against setting any other of your servants in this station. The second of your rights over him: that you may be secure from him in four things — that he not call you to account without an offence, that he not covet your wealth where there has been no breach of trust, that he not advance over you one beneath you, and that he not give an enemy power over you. A king enjoined his son, saying: you will never reach the firm ordering of what you desire in the governing of your kingdom save by the support of your viziers and your aides; so support them in obeying you by attending to them yourself, and support them in supporting you by lending them your help. The third of your rights over him: that he preserve you in your station in four things. That he not suspect your inward part while your outward part is sound, and so call you to account upon a surmise which he is unable to repel with certainty; for none calls to account for the secrets of hearts but the Knower of all that is hidden. It was said to Kisrā ibn Qubādh: a company of your intimates have become corrupt in their inmost parts. And he wrote in reply: I rule bodies, not intentions; I judge by justice, not by favour; and I scrutinise deeds, not inmost parts. The second, that he not replace you while your administration is upright, so that your confidence dwindles and your energy weakens and you do not find in yourself the vigour for what he has charged you with; for the promptings of nature are more effectual than the artifice of forced effort, and he took you on for an uprightness he found in you, so that if he squanders your right by replacing you he wrongs himself and stands in peril from another than you. And Kisrā has said: the vizierate is the furthest of offices from bearing one who is unfit for it, because the vizier stands to the king in the place of his hearing, his sight, his tongue and his heart, since the king is behind closed doors, veiled from eyes — that he may preserve him in his properties and cover over his flaw in his deeds; and one who is in this station is deserving to be preserved and regarded. The third, that he not call you to account for the overtaking of what the divine decree (al-qaḍāʼ) has drawn on and destiny (al-qadar) has driven, and so make you a target in opposing his Creator; and are you in this anything but as he is himself? How then should the acts of God be sins in His servants? One of the sages has said: matters are sought with toil and attained by the decree. For this reason the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “When God the Exalted wills to carry through His decree and His destiny, He strips the possessors of intellects of their intellects until His decree and His destiny are carried through upon them.” The fourth: that he not load you with what is not within your power, nor charge you with what is not within your capacity; for God charges no soul beyond its compass. And that comes from nothing but the promptings of fault-finding and the beginnings of estrangement. The sage of al-Rūm said: the first place in which the change of kings begins is the eye; then when it increases it comes out to the tongue; and when it increases further it comes out to the hand. By this sum, then, the correspondence of your rights over him with his rights over you has been made plain. And al-Muʻtaṣim said: whoever seeks his right by what is due from him attains it — except that your rights over him are laid down so as to be exacted at their least, because of his ascendancy over you through power and your falling short of him through deputyship. So be according to what the standing of the vizierate requires, and give him what he deserves by the sovereignty of kingship, so that your striving for him prospers and his striving against you comes to nothing. And the Mūbadhān Mūbadh gave this description in the Book of Kings, saying: they are their guarded eyes, their retentive ears and their witnessing tongues; for none is more fortunate than the viziers of kings when kings are fortunate, and none nearer to destruction than the viziers of kings when kings are destroyed. So suspicion is lifted from the viziers when their counsels to kings become their counsels to themselves, and certainty concerning them is granted them when their exertion for kings becomes their exertion for themselves. For a spirit does not suspect a body, nor does a body suspect a spirit, because the passing away of their intimacy is the passing away of the blessing of both, and the knitting together of their intimacy is the welfare of him who holds them.

As for your caution before the age: it turns about in its hues and grows rough after its softness; it strips away what it has given and scatters what it has gathered. Abū Ḥāzim related from Abū Bakr, may God the Exalted be pleased with him, from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Look to whose houses you dwell in, and whose land you sow, and in whose roads you walk.” One of the sages said: the world, if it remains for you, you do not remain for it. And it was said among the scattered sayings of wisdom: whoever reproaches the age, his reproaching is long; and whoever does not expose himself to calamities, they expose themselves to him. And one of the eloquent said: the world advances as a seeker advances and turns away as a fugitive turns away; it does not remain in one state nor is it ever free of change; it sets one side right by spoiling another, and gladdens one companion by grieving another; so to be in it is peril, and to trust it is delusion. And Qays ibn al-Khaṭīm said:

It is among the habits of the days that their turns — when one side of them is gladdened, another is grieved

And your caution before your age is in four aspects:

The first of them: that you not trust in its assistance, nor lean upon its easy dealing, and so grow heedless of caution and readiness; for it may turn over and devour, and lower itself and snatch away. It has been said: Time has its turns, and you are not to be turned aside from them. Abū al-ʻAtāhiyah said:

Time, though it be soft to its own people, is rough And its moving afflictions — as though they were still

The second aspect: that you seize the opportunity of your power by doing what is fair, planting benefits and conferring favours, that they may be a store for you in calamities and a replacement in what comes after. Let not your own sufficiency divert you from making provision, nor your own independence keep you from seeking more. For it has been said: a man is the son of his day, so let him rouse himself from his sleep. And it is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Seize five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your leisure before your occupation, and your life before your death.” And Saʻīd ibn Salm said:

The world is but a mote of dust — and a loan to be taken back Hardship after ease — and ease after hardship

The third aspect: that you hold yourself back from what is foul and withhold your hand from wrongdoing, that you may be spared the lying in wait of blood-grudges (tirāt) and the ruin brought on by slips, and so be safe from your dread and sound from your stumbling. Do not overreach with power, lest you grow heedless while you are being sought, and feel safe while you are being despoiled. It is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Follow the evil deed with the good deed, and it will wipe it out.” And it was said in one of the earliest scriptures: woe to sinners, for misery clings to them until the day of their death; and the sinful father is cursed by his sons if they are righteous, because they are reproached on his account. One of the sages said: by your withdrawing from evil it withdraws from you, and by fair dealing those who keep ties with you are multiplied. And Muḍarris ibn Ribʻī said — and it is among the current proverbs:

Good endures the longer, though time be long with it — and evil is the foulest provision you ever stored up

The fourth aspect: that you make ready for your hereafter and provide for your place of return; that you not be deluded by hope, so that loss comes upon you, and that the world not distract you and so turn you away from the hereafter. For few are those who have consorted with it and come away safe from its consequences, because of the slips of its delusion and the outcomes of its evils. It is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “O wonder, all wonder, at the man who believes in the abode of everlasting life and yet labours for the abode of delusion.” And it was said among the scroll of wise sayings (manshūr al-ḥikam): the divorcing of the world is the bride-price of Paradise. So expiate its acts of disobedience by repentance, and mend its evils by obedience; do not squander your portion in it, and do not forget your share of it, and do good as God has done good to you. It is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Men are two who go forth at morning: one who goes forth with his soul and so sets it free, and one who binds his soul and so destroys it.” Abū Mūsā related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Upon every Muslim there is alms. They said: and if he has nothing? He said: let him help the needy man in his distress. They said: and if he does not do that? He said: let him enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. They said: and if he does not do that? He said: let him hold back from evil, for that is alms.”

As for caution before the people of the age: it is because man is envied for the blessing he has and looked upon with longing for his safety; and people are of four divergent sorts (aṭwār)

The first of them: a good man of intellect, who keeps peace by his goodness and gives help by his intellect; to gain him is good fortune and to seek his aid is a granted success. So strive that he not slip past you — rare though he be — that you may have the benefit of his goodness and the good fortune of his intellect. It is related of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: “Seek guidance of the man of intellect and you will be guided; do not disobey him, or you will regret it.” One of the sages said: among the best of choices is the company of the good, and among the worst of choices the company of the wicked. And rarely is the good man of intellect other than adorned with knowledge and graced with cultivation (adab). One of the sages has said: there is no cultivation save by intellect, and no intellect save by cultivation; and the likeness of the two is the likeness of the spirit and the body — the body without a spirit is a form, and the spirit without a body is a wind, but when the two come together they grow strong, and so rise up and raise others up. So when the age gives you the winning of one whose excellences are complete and whose qualities are refined, take him for the store of your calamities and the equipment of your hardships; you will find him the surety of their setting right and the guarantor of their success. The disciples said to ʻĪsā ibn Maryam, peace be upon him: with whom shall we sit? He said: with him whose speech increases your knowledge, whose sight reminds you of God, and whose deeds make you desire the hereafter.

The second sort: an ignorant man of evil, who harms by his evil and leads astray by his ignorance. Beware of mingling with him, for it is more pervasive than poison and more piercing than the arrow. His evil, through his ignorance, is diffused abroad: it weakens if he is set aside, and grows strong if he is taken into partnership. So restrain his evil by keeping him at a distance, and do not settle him near you, lest he attach to you the two harms of his evil and his ignorance. It was said among the scattered sayings of wisdom: it is part of ignorance to keep company with the possessors of ignorance. And it was said in one of the books of the Children of Israel: keep far from the ignorant man that you may find rest, for the carrying of sand and salt and iron is easier than a dwelling place with an ignorant man. The harm of ignorance is more pervasive than the harm of evil, because the rule (qānūn) of evil is known while the rule of ignorance is not known. And it has been said: the ignorant man either goes to excess or falls short (mufriṭ aw mufarriṭ)

The third sort: a good man who is ignorant, who keeps peace by his goodness and leads astray by his ignorance. Draw near him if you wish, for his goodness, and do not employ him, because of his ignorance, that you may be marked out by his goodness and left sound from his ignorance. For ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd said: everything has its kernel (lubāb), and the kernel of souls is the intellects (al-albāb)

The fourth sort: an evil man of intellect, and he is the crafty man of guile. He is employed in grave matters when they press hard, with caution against his guile, and he is left alone in times of ease, so as to ward off his evil. And