At one time, when through perpetrating a great wrong due to the desire for fame, a little man who was occupying a high worldly position became a laughing-stock in the eyes of the World of Islam, I spoke to him teaching him the meaning of the above comparison;  I hit him over the head  with it. He was badly shaken,  but because  I myself had not been saved from the desire for rank and position, my warning did not arouse him.

SECOND STRATAGEM

One  of  the  strongest  and  most  basic  emotions  in  man  is  the  sense  of  fear. Scheming   oppressors   profit  greatly  from  the  vein  of  fear.  They  restrain   the pusillanimous with it. The agents of the worldly and propagandists of the people of misguidance take advantage of this vein of the common people and of the religious scholars  in  particular.  They  frighten  them  and  excite  their  groundless  fears.  For example,  in order  to  scare  a coward  who  is on a roof and  put  him  in danger,  a scheming man shows him something which he supposes is harmful; he excites his fear and draws him gradually towards the edge of the roof; then he makes him fall and break his neck. In exactly the same way, they make people sacrifice most important things due to most unimportant fears. Trying to avoid a mosquito bite, they flee into the dragon’s mouth.

One time, an eminent person – May God have mercy on him – was frightened of climbing  into  a  rowing-boat.  One  evening,  we  walked  together  to  the  Bridge  in Istanbul. We had to board a boat; there was no carriage and we were going to Eyüp Sultan. I insisted. He said: “I’m frightened. Perhaps it’ll sink!” I said to him: “How many boats do you reckon there are, here on the Golden Horn?” He replied: “Perhaps a thousand.” So I asked him: “How many boats sink in a year?” He said: “One or two. Perhaps none at all.” I asked  him: “How many days are there in a year?” “Three hundred and sixty,” he replied. So I said to him: “The possibility of sinking, which provokes these groundless fears and makes you anxious, is one in three hundred and sixty thousand. Someone who is frightened at such a possibility is not a human being, he couldn’t even be an animal!” Then I asked him: “How long do you reckon you will live?” He replied: “I am old; perhaps I’ll live another ten years.”