
“One that will not plead that cause wherein his tongue must be confuted by his conscience.”
The Good Advocate.
The Holy State and the Profane State (1642)
Misnad al-Imām al-Hādī, p. 304.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, General
“One that will not plead that cause wherein his tongue must be confuted by his conscience.”
The Good Advocate.
The Holy State and the Profane State (1642)
Farai'd al-Kalam li'l-Khulafa' al-Kiram, p. 269
“On the tongue of such an one they shed a honeyed dew, and from his lips drop gentle words.”
Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 82.
As quoted in Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985) by Carl W. Ernst, p. 45
Variant translation: Allah, Most High, is the very One Who Himself affirms His Unity by the tongue of whomsoever of His creatures He wishes. If He affirms His Unity in my tongue it is He Who does so, and it is His affair. Otherwise, my brother, I myself have nothing to do with affirming Allah's Unity.
As quoted in "Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj" at Sidi Muhammad Press http://www.sufimaster.org/teachings/husayn.htm
Context: God, Most High, is the very one who Himself affirms His unity by the tongue of whatever of His creatures He wishes. If He Himself affirms His unity by my tongue, it is He and His affair. Otherwise, brother, I have nothing to do with affirming God's Unity.
“That man that hath a tongue, I say is no man, if with his tongue he cannot win a woman.”
Source: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
“The more one learns, the more he understands his ignorance.”
“One, knowing the duties of man and being ignorant of his impotence, is lost in presumption”
Conversation on Epictetus and Montaigne
Context: One, knowing the duties of man and being ignorant of his impotence, is lost in presumption, and that the other, knowing the impotence and being ignorant of the duty, falls into laxity; whence it seems that since the one leads to truth, the other to error, there would be formed from their alliance a perfect system of morals. But instead of this peace, nothing but war and a general ruin would result from their union; for the one establishing certainty, the other doubt, the one the greatness of man, the other his weakness, they would destroy the truths as well as the falsehoods of each other. So that they cannot subsist alone because of their defects, nor unite because of their opposition, and thus they break and destroy each other to give place to the truth of the Gospel. This it is that harmonizes the contrarieties by a wholly divine act, and uniting all that is true and expelling all that is false, thus makes of them a truly celestial wisdom in which those opposites accord that were incompatible in human doctrines.