The Book of Virtue

How to adorn oneself with virtue?

Author Ibn Hazm said:

"Blessed is he whose soul delights in virtue and good works, shunning vice and sins. Unhappy is he who finds pleasure in vice and sins, shunning virtue and good works.

Anyone who struggles for the afterlife is on the side of the angels. Anyone who fights for evil is on the side of the demons. Anyone who chases after glory and victory is on the side of the beasts. Anyone who runs after the pleasures of the senses is on the side of the beasts. Anyone who runs after money as such, and not to spend it on religious obligations and laudable acts of charity, is too ignoble, too vile to be compared to a beast. It is more like stagnant water in inaccessible cellars: no animal benefits from the slightest drop.

The wise man derives no satisfaction from a characteristic which ranks him below wild animals, beasts and inanimate objects. He rejoices only in his progress in the virtue by which Allah distinguishes him from these same beasts, beasts and objects. It is the virtue of reason which he shares with the angels."

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