The heart is a very delicate creation. Should we compare it to a single drop of dew? Picture the trembling of…

The heart is a very delicate creation. Should we compare it to a single drop of dew? Picture the trembling of a dewdrop that has made its home on the petal of a flower at dawn. The heart is like this too: it trembles, a little dust soils it; it perishes easily — the sun turns it into vapor; the wind shakes it off. Just as it is so difficult to keep the dewdrop in this pure and shining state, so it is just as hard to keep the heart transparent and clear. To preserve the dew of the heart, one must protect it with guards. The first guard is reason. Let reason not let into the heart words that are unnecessary and that bring the mood down. There is some gossip about you that it is more beneficial not to know. If you know it, you will only fall into sorrow. And there is gossip about certain bad deeds of others too, and if you remain unaware of it, you lose nothing. It is better not to know them, not to see them. Thinking well of people and holding a good opinion of them is better than learning ugly truths about them, becoming disappointed and hating them. Searching for other people’s mistakes and sins and spreading talk about them harms, first and foremost, the gossiper himself — his heart suffers endless pain from it. Secondly, it is one of the ways of spreading corruption. Thirdly, even if a person is a sinner, disgracing him is not at all fitting, for the doors of repentance are open. Of course, oppression here is another matter — a person who sees someone being oppressed must fight against the oppression. Oppression is something one can never compromise with. Whether a person wishes it or not, he is bound to the people around him. People help one another and receive help. If the bonds of mutual help between people are cut, the whole society is afflicted with misfortune. The work of goodness must never stop. The finest kind of goodness is doing good to the one who has done you evil. While doing this good, one is required to be free of reproach and rudeness, arrogance and showing off. The factor that holds any person back from goodness is thinking and imagining ill of others. The words “So-and-so said this about you!” at once stop anyone from doing good to that person, and perhaps even encourage him to do evil. With a single word one can block the source of the springs of goodness. A person is powerless even to master his own mouth — how could he shut the mouths of others? So it is very hard to build a dam against words of gossip and slander. That is why the guard of a person called reason must be able to check every word. For this one must not become a captive of every sentence one hears, but must find out whether it is true or false. If this is impossible, it is desirable to entrust the matter to God and wait for the truth to come to light by divine wisdom. That is why the great ones said: do not draw conclusions relying on the words of one side. Listen to the other side as well; perhaps the truth lies between these two accounts?! If you cannot do that, be patient, wait. A corpse that has sunk in the river surely floats up to the surface. The main thing is to take care of your heart.

Akrom MALIK