Today We forget you just as you forgot the encounter of this day of yours; your refuge is the Fire. Yes, I said that dust must carry burdens, not be headstrong. If a sultan should pick up a poor beggar from the middle of the road, take him before the throne of his good fortune, and dress him in a robe of elevation, the stipulation for the beggar is that he not forget himself and that he know his own worth. He must always keep that poverty and lack of honor before his eyes. It reached the ears of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz that his son had a ring made, and then bought a stone worth one thousand dirhams and placed it in the ring. He wrote a letter to him: “My son, I hear that you have had a ring made, bought a stone worth one thousand dirhams, and placed it on the ring. If you want to please me, sell the stone, feed a thousand hungry people, and make a ring for yourself from a piece of silver. On it, engrave the words, 'May God have mercy on the man who knows his own worth!'” O chevalier! No garment fits the stature of earth better and more beautifully than the gar- ment of humility: “Anyone who has twice traveled the urinary canal should not be proud.” Greatness, magnificence, exaltedness, height, tremendousness, and splendor are the attributes of the Majestic Lord.
