mashaa Allah

"The people say to me that,
'You withdraw and
Keep away from the people'
But what they have seen is just a man who
Keeps away from humiliation
I see that the people sire such
that whoever is close to them,
Then he is held in contempt by them,
And whoever has respect for his own self then
he is the noble one.
I have not ceased keeping aloof from the people
with my honour to one side,
Keeping away from fault finding as a safeguard,
And I regard it as a profit to do so.
I would not have fulfilled the right of knowledge
if every time it appeared before me,
I used knowledge
as a ladder to climb upon to attain it
If it is said to me, 'There is a watering place
here...' Then I will say, 'i can see it.'
However the soul of the free person can put up
With being thirsty.
Every burst of lightning that appears in front of
me does not excite me,
And I am not pleased that I should take
everyone from the people of the earth as
benefactors.I have not expended
my soul in the service of
knowledge... In order that i should be
a servant to whoever I
meet rather-that i should be served.
Did i go through straightened circumstances for it,
in order to plant and establish it
And then have to harvest humiliation as a result
or that? In that case following
ignorance would have been
wiser for me.If the people of knowledge
had only preserved
the honour of knowledge
It would have preserved their honour.
If they had given it honour in the hearts of the
people it would have been honoured.
But they debased it and therefore they were
degraded and they disfigured it
due to their own greedy
desires, so that its apperance looked ugly"