Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/265

On Rules for Conduct of Life

is for the comfort of life, not for the accumulation of wealth. A sage, having been asked who is lucky and who is not, replied: "He is lucky who has eaten and sowed, but he is unlucky who has died and not enjoyed."

Pray not for the Nobody who has done nothing, who spent his life in accumulating property, but has not enjoyed it.

Moses, upon whom be peace, thus advised Qarûn : Do thou good as Allah has done unto thee. But he would not listen, and thou hast heard of his end.

Who has not accumulated good with dirhems and dinârs has staked his end upon his dirhems and dinârs. If thou desirest to profit by riches of the world, be liberal to mankind, as God has been liberal to thee.

The Arab says: Be liberal without imposing obligations, and verily the profit will return to thee.

Wherever the tree of beneficence has taken root, its tallness and branches pass beyond the sky; if thou art desirous to eat the fruit thereof, do not put a saw to its foot by imposing obligations.

Thank God that thou hast been divinely aided and not excluded from his gifts and bounty; think not thou conferest an obligation on the Sultân by serving him, but be obliged to him for having kept thee in his service.

men took useless trouble and strove without any profit, when one of them accumulated property without enjoying it, and the other learnt without practising [what he had learnt].