25. CAUTION IS NECESSARY IN ALL MATTERS
He who accompanies a Sultan must be consistent inwardly (batin) and outwardly (zahir), because the Sultan might devise ways to reveal the true intentions of his companions.
Some Sultan’s used to dedicate a room in their palaces for their companions, and test them. When they found that they did not have good intentions, they would order them out of their palaces.
Some leaders {amirs) used to camouflage themselves in community to find out what laypeople thought of them.
‘Umar Ibn ‘Abdul-Aziz noticed a man who used to pray a lot. So he sent another man to tell him, ‘If I get you a certain government position what would you give me?’ The man responded, ‘I would give you such and such.’ When ‘Umar heard of this he said, ‘You fooled us with your prayers.’
And I was told that a woman answered the invitation of a man to his house, and then killed him. So, one should not accept the words of a woman or a man who might be a spy.
He ought not to reveal something that should be concealed, such as money, gold, a school of thought one belongs to or condemnation of someone. And you must not trust baseless friendliness, because beneath it might be something harmful.
A person must be careful of every possible scenario. Someone might become harmed because of a word that was transmitted unintentionally. Someone might show you excessive friendliness until he takes control over you.
So be careful from trusting anyone, especially an enemy that you have previously harmed for he might use his friendliness as a net to capture you.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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