he misses, he must not become irritated, discontented, or despair of Allah’s mercy, for a miss in this discipline is more beloved to Allah than a bull’s-eye in every other form of play.

Nor is he to curse his bow, his arrow, his own self (1), or his instructor, for all of that is sheer wrongdoing and aggression. Let him persevere in shooting even when his errors are many; soon enough those very errors will be transformed into accuracy. He should know that error is the prelude to correctness, and faulty performance the precursor to excellence.

It has been related that one of the great scholars once spoke on a certain issue and got it right. Those present admired his answer and said, “By Allah, you have done well!” He replied, “By Allah, no one ever said to me, ‘You have done well,’ until my face had grown red from getting this question wrong time after time”—or words to that effect.

Nor should the accuracy and mastery he witnesses in others, and his own inability to reach their level, undermine his resolve. That is no defect at all; the real and complete defect is for his ambition to shrink from striving toward that rank, for him not even to imagine attaining what they have attained. Such a person will never prosper, for all depends upon aspiration. As it has been said:

If a man’s fine qualities impress you,
then become him, and those very qualities will arise from you.
There is no doorkeeper barring your approach
when you come to generosity and noble deeds. (2)