بخش 58 - مثال رنجور شدن آدمی به‌وَهم تعظیم خلق و رغبت مشتریان به‌وی و حکایت معلم

The boys in a certain school suffered at the hands of their master from weariness and toil.

They consulted about (the means of) stopping (his) work, so that the teacher should be reduced to the necessity (of letting them go),

(Saying), “Since no illness befalls him, which would cause him to take absence for several days,

So that we might escape from (this) imprisonment and confinement and work, (what can we do?). He is fixed (here), like a solid rock.”

One, the cleverest (of them all), planned that he should say, “Master, how are you (so) pale?

May it be well (with you)! Your colour is changed: this is the effect either of (bad) air or of a fever.”

(He continued), “At this he (the master) will begin to fancy a little (that he is ill): do you too, brother, help (me) in like manner.

When you come in through the door of the school, say (to him), ‘Master, is your state (of health) good?’

(Then) that fancy of his will increase a little, for by a fancy a sensible man is driven mad.

After us let the third (boy) and the fourth and the fifth show sympathy and sorrow likewise,

So that, when with one consent thirty boys successively tell this story, it may find lodgement (in his mind).”

Each (of the boys) said to him (the ringleader), “Bravo, O sagacious one! May your fortune rest on the favour (of God)!”

They agreed, in firm covenant, that no fellow should alter the words;

And afterwards he administered an oath to them all, lest any tell-tale should reveal the plot.

The counsel of that boy prevailed over all (the others), his intellect was going in front of the (whole) flock.

There is the same difference in human intellect as (there is) amongst loved ones in (their outward) forms.

From this point of view, Ahmad (Mohammed) said in talk, “The excellence of men is hidden in the tongue.”