96. Just as there are obedience and rebellion in the face of the commands of the Shari‘a, so there are obedience and rebellion in the face of the creative commands in the universe. With regard to the first, the reward and punishment are mostly in the hereafter, while with the second, they are mostly in this world. For example, the reward for patience is victory; the punishment for idleness is poverty; the reward for effort is wealth, and the reward for constancy, triumph. Justice without equality is not justice.
97. Mutual resemblance is the cause of contradiction; congruity is the basis of solidarity; smallness of character is the source of arrogance; weakness is the source of pride; impotence is the source of opposition; and curiosity is the teacher of knowledge.
98. Through need, and especially through hunger, the Creator’s power has reined in foremost man, and all the animals, and put them in order. Also, He saved the world from anarchy, and making need the master of civilization, ensured progress.
99. Distress teaches vice; despair is the source of misguidance; and darkness of heart, the source of spiritual distress.
100. When men become amiable through following their fancies, women become masculine by being impudent.
A beautiful woman entering a gathering of brothers awakens hypocrisy, rivalry, and envy. That is to say, the unveiling of women led to the unveiling of bad morals in civilized man.
101. The represented forms of little smiling corpses have played a large role in making the evil-polluted perverse spirit of modern man what it is.
102. The prohibited statue is either petrified tyranny, or embodied lust, or personified hypocrisy.
103. For someone who has truly entered into the bounds of Islam by conforming precisely to its incontestable matters, the desire to expand is the desire to be perfected. But for someone deemed outside those bounds due to slackness, the desire to expand is the desire to destroy. In time of storm and earthquake, it is advisable to not open the door of ijtihad, and to close the windows too. The overly free and easy should not be indulged with dispensations, but determinedly and severely warned.
104. Unfortunate truths become worthless in worthless hands.
105. Our globe resembles a living being; it displays the signs of life.