Letters ( revised ) | Seeds of Reality | 536
(528-541)

65. Fear and weakness invite outside influences.

 

66. Definite benefits should not be sacrificed for imaginary harms.

 

67. Istanbul politics at the present time are as sick as Spanish ’flu.

 

68. Tell a bad man, “You are good, you are good,” and it is not unheard of that he will become good. And tell a good man “You are bad, you are bad,” and it is not rare for him to become bad.

 

69. So long as the enemy of an enemy remains his enemy, he is a friend; and so long as the friend of an enemy remains his friend, he is an enemy.

 

70. Obduracy is this: if Satan assists someone, he calls him an angel and calls down blessings on him. But if among his opponents he encounters an angel, he calls him a satan in other clothes and curses him.

 

71. The remedy for one ill may be poison for another. An excessive dose is the cause of ills.

 

72. Solidarity in a society results in harmony in all its activites, while mutual envy causes all its activities to come to a standstill.

 

73. If the community  is not one and a whole,  undivided  number,  addition  makes smaller, like multiplying fractions.[4]

 

74. Non-acceptance is confused with the acceptance of non-being. The evidence for non-acceptance is the absence of established proof. The acceptance of non-being requires proof of non-being. One is doubt while the other is denial.

 

75. If doubt in the questions of belief destroys one, or even a hundred, evidences, it does not harm what is posited; for there are hundreds of evidences.

 

76.  The  majority  of  Muslims  should  be  followed.  For  when  they  followed  the majority the Umayyads, who were slack in religion, finally entered the Sunni community.  As  for  the Shi‘a,  who  were  firm  in religion  but remained  in the minority  as  regards  their  practices,  finally  only  a  part  of  them  followed  the Rafida.

 

77. If unanimity concerning good leads to conflict concerning what is better, then sometimes  good  is  better  than  the  better;  right  is  truer  than  what  is  truer. Everyone should say about his own way that “It is right,” he should not say “it is the only right way.” Or he should say, “It is good,” but he should not say “It is the only good way.”

 

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[4] It is well-known that in arithmetic, multiplication and addition increase: four times four makes sixteen, while in fractions, on the contrary multiplication and addition make smaller: a third multiplied by a third makes a ninth. In just the same way, if there is not integral wholeness, correctness, and unity among people, by multiplying they become smaller, spoilt, and valueless.

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