88. When pleasure calls, a person should say: “It is as though I ate it.” (Sanki yedim.) For one who made that his principle, could have eaten a mosque called “Sanki Yedim,” but he did not.(29)

89. Formerly, there was no hunger among Muslims; there was the desire for ease. Now they are hungry, and they have no wish for pleasure.

90. Temporary pains should be smiled on rather than temporary pleasure being smiled on, and should be welcomed. For past pleasures cause one to say: “Alas!”, and “Alas!” is the interpreter of a concealed pain. While past pains cause one to say: “Oh!”, and “Oh!” tells of a permanent pleasure and bounty.

91. Forgetfulness is also a bounty. It allows one to suffer the pains of only one day, and causes the rest to be forgotten.

92. In every calamity is a degree of bounty, like a degree of heat. Greater calamities should be thought of and the degree of bounty in the small one noted, and God should be thanked. For if the calamity is blown up, it will grow; and if it is worried over, it will double; the image, the imagining, in the heart will be transformed into reality; and that will pound the heart as well.

93. In society as a whole, everyone has a window, known as rank, through which to see and be seen. If the window is higher than his stature, a person will

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(29) That is, the person put aside the money saved through his abstinence and built the mosque with the proceeds. It is in the Fatih district of Istanbul. [Tr.]