by T.L. James of Mars Blog and Man of Two Worlds. Part of our weekly Sufi Wisdom series.
This week's wisdom comes from "The Manners of Kings", in Saadi's classic Gulistan:
I heard a padshah giving orders to kill a prisoner. The helpless fellow began to insult the king on that occasion of despair, with the tongue he had, and to use foul expressions according to the saying:Who washes his hands of life
Says whatever he has in his heart.
...When the king asked what he was saying, a good-natured vezier replied: 'My lord, he says: [Paradise is for] Those who bridle their anger and forgive men; for Allah loveth the beneficent.' The king, moved with pity, forbore taking his life but another vezier, the antagonist of the former, said: 'Men of our rank ought to speak nothing but the truth in the presence of padshahs. This fellow has insulted the king and spoken unbecomingly.' The king, being displeased with these words, said: 'That lie was more acceptable to me than this truth thou hast uttered because the former proceeded from a conciliatory disposition and the latter from malignity; and wise men have said: "A falsehood resulting in conciliation is better than a truth producing trouble."'
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