Sol 5.6

  1. When you think well of men,

    you rise thereby—I swear by the ladies of curtained chambers.

  2. But if your thoughts turn ill, my dear,

    then through your ill opinion you sink into baseness.

  3. Do not weigh the balance of sacred law

    against the scales of reflection and imagination.

  4. Even if, at some time, you happen to judge rightly by it,

    you will go wrong through it and fall into delusion.

  5. Created beings are distinguished by the fruits they bear;

    how far the necessary lies from the impossible!

  6. If you behold something that does not please

    your God, the very essence of my state has become sweet to me

  7. at the sight of the one in whom you beheld it,

    though in him are deeds deserving blame.

  8. My counsel has come to you, soaring aloft

    above every nobility of character there ever was.

  9. For ill opinion is forbidden you by sacred law,

    while good opinion is counted among the lawful.

  10. And if you are the imam charged with carrying out a prescribed penalty,

    carry it out as you were commanded, and do not concern yourself.

  11. But do not follow it with ill opinion of him;

    thus you will keep yourself safe from being called to account.

  12. For God will question whoever comes to Him

    bearing it, on the Day of Resurrection and the Meeting.

  13. A servant of God is not judged by a judgment already past,

    nor one still to come, but by the judgment of the present state.

Sol 5.6