At that time came to me a friend on whose bones skin alone remained. I was astonished, since he was of lofty rank and rich. “O friend!” said I, “what misfortune has befallen thee?”
“Where is thy sense?” he answered. “Seest thou not that the severities of famine have reached their limit? Rain comes not from the sky, neither do the lamentations of the suffering reach to heaven.”
“Thou, at least,” I urged, “hast nought to fear; poison kills only where there is no antidote.”
Regarding me with indignation, as a learned man regards a fool, my friend replied: “Although a man be safely on the shore, he stands not supine while his friends are drowning. My face is not pale through want; the sorrows of the poor have wounded my heart. Although, praise be to Allah, I am free from wounds, I tremble when I see the wounds of others.”
Bitter are the pleasures of him who is in health when a sick man is at his side. When the beggar has not eaten, poisonous and baneful is one’s food.
A bully fell down a well and passed the night in wailing and lamenting. Some one threw a stone down on to his head, and said: “Didst thou ever go to any one’s assistance that thou shouldst to-day cry out for help? Didst thou ever sow the seeds of virtue? Who would place a salve upon thy wounds when the hearts of all cry out by reason of thy tyrannies? Across our path thou didst dig a pit, into which, perforce, hast thou now fallen.”
If thou do evil expect not goodness; never does the withered grape-vine bring forth fruit.
O thou who soweth the seed in autumn! I think not that thou wilt reap the corn at harvest-time.
If thou nourish the thorn-tree of the desert, think not that thou wilt ever eat its fruit.
Green dates come not from the poisonous colocynth; when thou sowest seed, hope only for the fruit of that very seed.
If thou art wise, incline towards the essential truth, for that remains, while the things that are external pass away.
He who has neither knowledge, generosity, nor piety resembles a man in form alone.
He sleeps at peace beneath the ground who made tranquil the hearts of men.
Give now of thy gold and bounty, for eventually will it pass from thy grasp. Open the door of thy treasure to-day, for to-morrow the key will not be in thy hands.