MAXIMS OF ILLUMINATION Study One who lords :
it
55
over the poor with the wealth of his treasures
or vies with them in the beauty of his pottery, Allah shall humiliate, and he shall become needy he shall be returned to ugliness and shall ;
crumble to pieces. Boast not of what bounties have been given you
Over
others, but fear the crushing of the Mighty. In origin much like pottery you were made, How quick to break is pottery in this world !
Examination: The meaningful gems of Time are too costly to be squandered in raving. My God! How strange the one whose lifetime runs out while he hoards gold. Poor he is with all he has amassed.
He
has no supporter of any consequence.
He who
spends his hours making a fortune, In fear of poverty, that which he does is poverty indeed. 69
Study
:
He who
is
Him. But he who
poor in relation to
God
feels too rich to call
be made rich through on Him shall be in need of shall
everything; and he who needs everything shall be forsaken by and nothing can serve him instead of God. Verse
all
:
Whatever you forsake can be Except Allah for Examination
:
whom
The magnetic
70
there
is
replaced, no substitute if
you forsake.
property of the poverty of essence
is
and grants; therefore, he whose quality of greatest shall have a more abundant and larger share.
the attraction for gifts
poverty
is
Study: The
specialization of poor folk in begging (su'al) is peculiar
and future times; this is recognized by him has discovered the fruit of supplication and whose needs and aspirations have been achieved for him. Examination The assumpto
them
at the present
who
:
Whom
tion of positive and absolute richness (ghina) by the Lord, to be glory, is precisely what decrees rank poverty for us. Through the
this attribute is loving-kindness achieved ; for it is out of the mercy of the rich that He favours the poor with bounties; thus does the great set the broken bones of the small. Study: No
assumption of
w al-Mutanabbi, 70 '
Ar. maghnfyls
Abdullah
p. 159. ir.
Gr. magnetis, used, probably for the
Muhammad ibn-Ahmad
Mafatih al-'Ulttm,
ed.
ibn-Yusuf al-Khwarizmi,
first time, fl.
G. van Vloten, Leyden, 1895, pp. 262-3.
by abu-
ca. 976,
in his