Arabian Wisdom: Selections and Translations from the Arabic — John Shaqi
Arabian Wisdom: Selections and Translations from the ArabicWortabet, John
Religion
Arabian Wisdom: Selections and Translations from the Arabic
Wortabet, John
Aphorisms and apothegms; Arabic literature -- Translations into English
Of all evils nothing is so hard to be borne as the triumph of an enemy.
Rejoice not over a fallen man--he may rise and you may fall.
Despise no enemy, however insignificant he may be--see how the shadow
of the earth causes an eclipse of the moon, or how a midge brings a
tear to the eye of a lion.
He who makes enemies shall have many a restless night.
He who has many enemies, let him expect a downfall.
When anger is repressed by reason of inability to do immediate harm, it
retires into the heart in the form of malice and breeds these
vices--envy, triumph over the enemy's ill, repulsion of friendly
approaches, contempt, slander, derision, personal violence, and
injustice.
MURDER
The first thing which shall be taken up in the Day of Judgment is
murder.
Man is a building made by God, and he who destroys the building of God
shall be demolished.
Put no man to undeserved death, for God forbids murder.
Announce violent death to the murderer, and poverty to the adulterer,
though after a season.
ENVY
The difference between envy and emulation is, that in the first the
desire is for the cessation of a good enjoyed by another, and in the
second the desire is for the possession of a similar good.
An envious man is angry with God for His favours to other men.
Every favoured man is envied.
A lordly man is always an object of admiration or of envy.
Beware of envy, for it shows itself in you, not in him whom you envy.
Envy is a disease for which there is no cure.
Envy is a disease which does more harm to the envious than to the
envied.
All enmity may be overcome except that which comes from envy.
There can be no peace in the heart of an envious man.
A man cannot be happy if he be malicious, envious, or ill-tempered.
Keep your affairs to yourself, for every favoured man is an object of
envy.
Envy may be cured only by a sure knowledge that it is a cause of much
pain to you and no evil to him whom you envy--so you must shun it if
you would not be an enemy to yourself and a friend to your enemy.
Envy consumes man, as rust corrodes iron.
He who strains his neck to look at one above him gets nothing but pain.
Envy no man except him who is good.
RASHNESS
Beware of rashness, for it has well been called the Mother of Regrets.
He who acts hastily either makes a blunder, or comes very near it.
He who is deliberate is either right, or very nearly so.
A hasty act comes from the Evil One, and a deliberate act from God.
Haste is the resort of the weak.
LAZINESS
Hopes are never realised by sloth.
A lazy man can never succeed in life.
It is one of the signs of weakness to leave things to fate.
A lazy man loses what is due to him.
Weakness and sloth lead to ruin.
A man gets tired of having nothing to do, as he gets tired of work.
If work is hard, want of work is a great evil.
Youth, riches, and leisure are the great corrupters of life.
The head of an idle man is the workshop of Satan.
AVARICE, STINGINESS, GREED
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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