Also,  the  contentment  apparent  through  their  tongues  of  disposition  of  the helpless young and a pleasant food like milk flowing out to them from an unexpected place, while wild  animals greedily attack their deficient and dirty sustenance, prove our claim in clear fashion.

Also,  the  contented  attitude  of  fat  fish  being  the  means  of  their  perfect sustenance, and intelligent animals like foxes and monkeys remaining puny and weak because  they cannot find sufficient sustenance although they pursue it with greed, again show the degree to which greed is the cause of hardship and contentment the cause of ease.

Also, certain people finding through greed, usury, and trickery their degrading,

miserable, illicit sustanance only at subsistence level, and the contented attitude of nomads  and  their  living  with  dignity  and  finding  sufficient  sustenance,  proves decisively what we say once more.

Also, many scholars14  and literary figures15  being reduced to poverty because of

the  greed  arising  from  their  intelligence,  and  many  stupid  and  incapable  people becoming   rich  due  to  their  innate  contentedness16    proves  decisively  that  licit sustenance comes because of impotence and want, not by virtue of ability and will. Indeed, licit sustenance is  in  inverse proportion to ability and will.  For the more children increase in ability and will, the more their sustenance decreases, the further it is from them and the more difficult to digest. According to the Hadith, “Contentment is an unfailing treasure,”17  contentment is a treasury of good living and ease of life, while greed is a mine of loss and abasement.

The  Third  Consequence:  Greed  destroys  sincerity  and  damages  actions  in regard to the hereafter. For if a God-fearing person suffers from greed, he will desire the regard of others, and someone who considers the attention of others cannot have complete sincerity. This consequence is extremely important and worth noticing.

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14 It was asked of Bozorgmehr, the Wazir of the Persian Shah Nushirvan the Just and scholar famous for his intelligence, “Why are the learned to be seen at the doors of rulers and rulers not to be seen at the doors of the learned, whereas learning is superior to rulership?” He replied: “Because of the knowledge of the learned and the ignorance of the rulers.” That is to say, due to their ignorance, rulers do not know the value of learning so that they approach the doors of the learned to seek it. But because of their knowledge, the learned know the value of their rulers’ goods and possessions and seek them at the rulers’ doors. Explaining thus wittily the greed resulting from the cleverness of the learned, which causes some of them to be impecunious and in want, Bozorgmehr replied in a refined manner.

Signed:Hüsrev

15 An event corroborating this: in France, a beggar’s licence was given to literary figures because they were so proficient at begging.

16 See, al-Daylami, al-Musnad, iv, 385.

Signed:    Süleyman Rüştü