Arabian Wisdom Part 10

Call not yourself a man so long as you are angry.

HATRED, MALICE

Of all men G.o.d abhors most an implacable enemy.

Of all things nothing is so bad as the making of enemies.

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 G.o.d, and he who destroys the building of G.o.d shall be demolished.

Put no man to undeserved death, for G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d.

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.