If a man gain wealth, his heart is
peradventure diverted thereby from the remembrance of his Lord,
and if poverty afflict him, his heart is distracted by care, or
if disquietude waste his heart, weakness reduces him to
impotence. So, in any case, there is nothing will profit him but
that he be mindful of God and occupy himself with gaining his
living and securing his place in Paradise." It was asked of a
certain wise man, "Who is the most ill-conditioned of men?" "He,"
replied the sage, "whose lusts master his manhood and whose mind
exceeds in the pursuit of objects of high emprise, so that his
knowledge increases and his excuse diminishes; and how excellent
is what the poet says:
The freest of all men from need of the arrogant meddler am I, The
fool who's unguided of God and judges the folk all awry;
For wealth and good gifts are a loan and each man at last shall
be clad As it were in a mantle, with that which hid in his
bosom doth lie.
If thou enter on aught by a door that is other than right, thou
wilt err; But the right door will dead thee aright, for
sure, if thou enter there by."
As for anecdotes of devotees (continued the maiden), quoth Hisham
ben Besher, "I said to Omar ben Ubeid, 'What is true devoutness?'
and he answered, 'The Prophet (whom God bless and preserve) hath
expounded it, when he says, "The devout is he who takes thought
to death and calamity and prefers that which is eternal to that
which passes away, who counts not the morrow as of his days, but
reckons himself among the dead.
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