Love of Europe was illicit, as well as blind imitation and familiarity. Its consequences and recompense were the tyrannical animosity of the beloved, and crimes.
The loser and sinner will find neither pleasure nor salvation.
A Grain of Truth Is To Be Found in the Jabriyya and Mu’tazila
O seeker after truth! The Shari’a differentiates between the past and disasters, and the future and sins.
Divine Determining1 is looked to in connection with the past and calamities, and the word is the Jabriyya’s.
Man’s accountability is considered concerning the future and sins; then the word is the Mu’tazila’s. The Mu’tazila and Jabriyya are reconciled here.
Both these false schools contain a grain of truth; it has a particular place; it is false when made general.
Impotence and Anxiety Are For the Inadequate
If you want life, don’t cling onto impotence in things for which there are solutions;
If you want ease of mind, don’t become needlessly anxious about things for which there is no solution.
Sometimes Little Things Do Big Works
Under some conditions a small point2 raises its owner to the highest of the high...
Then there are circumstances when a slight movement sends down the doer to the lowest of the low...
For Some People A Moment Is A Year
Some people’s innate capacities blossom in a instant, while others are gradual, unfolding little by little. Human nature contains both of these.
They look to conditions, and change accordingly. Sometimes they develop slowly. Sometimes they are dark like gunpowder, then suddenly explode into luminous fire.
Divine Determining (Kader), sometimes known as ‘fate’, ‘destiny’, or ‘predestination’. For a detailed exposition, see, the Twenty-Sixth Word in the present volume. [Tr.]
That is, a diacritical point (hareke) in the Arabic or Ottoman script. [Tr.]