the populace, and whoever tries to catch the light while turning away from the sun is pursuing the impossible and craving what he can never obtain.
Know, then, O Sultan, and grasp this well: the public emergence of justice is the fruit of a perfected intellect, and perfected intellect is to behold things as they truly are, to pierce to the realities hidden within them, and not to be beguiled by their outward show. For example, if you oppress people in pursuit of worldly gain, ask yourself what exactly you hope to gain. If your aim is simply to eat fine food, understand that this is the appetite of a brute in the guise of a man, for the urge to eat is common to beasts. If your aim is to place a crown upon your head, you are a woman in a man’s form, for ornamentation and vanity belong to women. If your aim is to unleash your anger upon your enemies, you are a lion—indeed a wild beast—in human shape, for harbouring wrath in the heart is the nature of predators. And if your aim is to have people serve you, you are an ignoramus masquerading as a rational being; had you possessed true reason you would know that those who “serve” you are really servants and pages of their own bellies, loins, and desires. Their service and prostration are for themselves, not for you. Proof of this is that, were they to hear a rumour that your governorship is to be taken from you and bestowed on another, they would desert you to a man; and wherever they scent a single dirham they hasten to serve and bow down in that very place. In reality, then, theirs is no service at all—it is nothing but mockery.
The intelligent person is he who looks to the spirits and true essences of things, not to their outward shapes. Such, as we have explained, is the reality of these deeds. Anyone who is not certain of this is no man of intellect; whoever lacks intellect cannot be just; and whoever is unjust, his destination is Hell. For this reason the principal capital of every happiness is reason.
The Fourth Principle
More often than not the ruler is arrogant, and from arrogance the people’s anger descends upon him.