Tag: sayd al-khatir

Translation from Ibn al-Jawzi's Sayd Al-Khatir (Quarry of the Mind) | Friends and Others

THE RATIONAL MAN is careful to uphold the positions of Allah even when it angers people. For he who takes the side of another at the price of the rights of the Creator, Allah turns the heart of the one he sought…

The Wages of Youth I STUDIED THE conditions of people who attain glory or wealth. That’s just when the downfall of most comes. Behold the youthful among them: How excessive grows their sinful behavior; how neglectful they are of their chance for…

I HAVE SEEN that the inclination of the ‘self’ toward what it desires tends to grow in intensity, until it leans forward to so great an extent that it pulls with it the heart, the rationality, and the mind of a person,…

A THOUGHT OCCURRED to me in a religious gathering—when the sitting became pleasurable, and the hearts were present, and the eyes were flowing, and the heads were bowed, and the souls felt remorse for their negligence, and the resolution to fix their…

THE MOST IDIOTIC of people is the one who acts according to the present situation and neither envisions change nor anticipates possible scenarios. Take, for example, one who is deluded by political power. He acts according to his desires relying on his…

THE STRUGGLE WITH one’s nafs, or self, is the strangest of things. This is because it requires a surprising talent. Now, some people give free reign to their nufûs, that is, they “let themselves go” to whatever they love. This yields the…