«37»- نهج، نهج البلاغة قَالَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عليه السلام الْعَالِمُ مَنْ عَرَفَ قَدْرَهُ وَ كَفَى بِالْمَرْءِ جَهْلًا أَنْ لَا يَعْرِفَ قَدْرَهُ وَ إِنَّ أَبْغَضَ الرِّجَالِ إِلَى اللَّهِ الْعَبْدُ وَكَلَهُ اللَّهُ إِلَى نَفْسِهِ جَائِراً عَنْ قَصْدِ السَّبِيلِ سَائِراً إِنْ دُعِيَ إِلَى حَرْثِ الدُّنْيَا عَمِلَ وَ إِلَی حَرْثِ الْآخِرَةِ كَسِلَ كَأَنَّ مَا عَمِلَ لَهُ وَاجِبٌ عَلَيْهِ وَ كَأَنَّ مَا وَنَى فِيهِ سَاقِطٌ عَنْهُ.

Nahj al-Balagha: The Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, says: The learned man is he who knows his own worth, and it is enough ignorance in a man that he should not know his own worth. The most hateful of people to God is one whom God has left to himself, so that he swerves from the straight road and walks without a guide. If he is called to the harvests of this world he strives to the utmost; but when he is called to the Hereafter and its manifold blessings he grows slack — as though what he labours for were obligatory upon him, and what he neglects and is idle about were not required of him at all.

بيان: قال ابن ميثم من عرف قدره أي مقداره و منزلته بالنسبة إلى مخلوقات اللّٰه تعالى و أنه أي شي ء منها و لأي شي ء خلق و ما طوره المرسوم في كتاب ربه و سنن أنبيائه و كان ما وني فيه أي ما فتر فيه و ضعف عنه.

Ibn Maytham said: "man 'arafa qadrahu" means that he knows his own measure and station in relation to God's creatures — what station he holds, for what he was created, what place he has in his Lord's Book and in the practice of His prophets, and in what he has fallen short.

«38»- كَنْزُ الْكَرَاجُكِيِّ، قَالَ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عليه السلام رَأْسُ الْعِلْمِ الرِّفْقُ وَ آفَتُهُ الْخُرْقُ ١.

Kanz al-Karajaki: The Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, said: The head of knowledge is gentleness, and its blight is roughness.

«39»- وَ قَالَ عليه السلام زَلَّةُ الْعَالِمِ كَانْكِسَارِ السَّفِينَةِ تَغْرَقُ وَ تُغْرِقُ.

The Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, said: The slip of a scholar is like the breaking of a ship: it sinks and it sinks others with it.

«40»- وَ قَالَ عليه السلام الْآدَابُ تَلْقِيحُ الْأَفْهَامِ وَ نَتَائِجُ الْأَذْهَانِ.

The Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, said: Good manners draw their substance from understanding and are brought forth in the mind.

و قال رحمه اللّٰه من عجيب ما رأيت و اتفق لي أني توجهت يوما لبعض أشغالي و ذلك بالقاهرة في شهر ربيع الآخر سنة ست و عشرين و أربعمائة فصحبني في طريقي رجل كنت أعرفه بطلب العلم و كتب الحديث فمررنا في بعض الأسواق بغلام حدث ٢ فنظر إليه صاحبي نظرا استربت منه ثم انقطع عني و مال إليه و حادثه فالتفتت انتظارا له فرأيته يضاحكه فلما لحق بي عذلته ٣ على ذلك و قلت له لا يليق هذا بك فما كان بأسرع من أن وجدنا بين أرجلنا في الأرض ورقة مرمية فرفعتها لئلا يكون فيها اسم اللّٰه تعالى فوجدتها قديمة فيها خط رقيق قد اندرس بعضه و كأنها مقطوعة من كتاب فتأملتها فإذا فيها حديث ذهب أوله و هذه نسخته قال إني أنا أخوك في الإسلام و وزيرك في الإيمان و قد رأيتك على أمر لم يسعني أن أسكت فيه عنك و لست أقبل فيه العذر منك قال و ما هو حتى أرجع عنه و أتوب إلى اللّٰه تعالى منه قال رأيتك تضاحك حدثا غرا جاهلا بأمور اللّٰه و ما يجب من حدود اللّٰه و أنت رجل قد رفع اللّٰه قدرك بما تطلب

Al-Karajaki says: Among the strange things I have seen, and which befell me, is this. One day in the city of Cairo I went out on some business of mine; it was the month of Rabi' al-Akhir in the year 426. A man accompanied me on the way whom I had urged to study and to write down hadith. In one of the markets we came upon a youth just coming of age, and the man looked at him with a lover's glance and left me and joined him and fell into conversation, drawing other people's attention, and spoke pleasantly with him and laughed pleasantly. When he came back to me I rebuked him for this and said it was not fitting for him. Very soon we found before our feet on the ground a written leaf fallen there, and I picked it up lest the name of God, exalted, be upon it. I saw it was old, written in a fine hand, and partly effaced, and seemed to be from some book. When I studied it, there was a hadith written on it whose beginning was lost; this part remained: He said: I am your brother in Islam and your support in faith, and I see you in a matter about which I cannot hold my tongue concerning you, nor accept your excuse. He said: What is it, that I may turn back from it and repent to God, exalted? He said: I saw you speaking and laughing pleasantly with a beguiling youth ignorant of God's commands and bounds — and this when God has raised your rank because you are a seeker of knowledge