of one’s debts, and beholding the Beloved.

It is also said: Two things drag sorrow into the heart—coveting gain from misers and disputing with the low-minded.

Wisdom: The sage declared, “Avoid four matters and you will be delivered from four evils: shun envy and you will be spared grief; do not sit with an evil companion and you will be spared reproach; do not commit sins and you will be spared the Fire; and do not hoard wealth and you will be spared enmity.”

Wisdom: The sage said, “Four censured deeds people commit and for which they will be requited in this world and the Hereafter: backbiting—of which it is said, ‘The mounted pursuer overtakes swiftly’; belittling the scholars, for whoever belittles a scholar ends up contemptible; showing ingratitude for Allah’s favors; and killing a soul without right. As the elders and sages have long maintained: ‘Every killer will himself be killed, even if after a while.’”

The poet said:
“When your hand clasps a knife to shed men’s blood,
Remember well the road that circles back.
Jesus once saw a murdered man upon the path
And long he bit in grief upon his fingers.
He said, ‘Whom had you slain that you should lie
As now I find you, cast here as the slain?’
Your killer, too—the one who sought your life—
Shall taste of killing; let the wailing last.”