Recently I translated the divan of Imam Shafii from Arabic into English and I really found it a beneficial text for myself. Through this blog I hope to share it with the world. I'm currently editing the translation and adding the Arabic text to the English translation as well as adding brief explanatory notes wherever I think necessary.
I'll put up a poem and a translation and an explanation as often as I can - hopefully daily - so please subscribe to this blog and keep in touch!
The poems are all packed full of wisdom and benefit and hopefully some of that should trickle into our lives too.
Anyway, here is the very first poem:
Diwan al-Shafi’i
A translation and exegesis
Chapter 1: Good Character
Concealing a secret
ولام عليه غـيـره فهو أحمــق | إذا المرء أفشى سره بلسانـه |
فصدْرُ الذي يستودع السر أضيق | إذا ضاق المرء عن سر نفسه |
Translation:
If a man spreads his secret by his own tongue,
And blames another then he is a fool.
If a man’s chest is straitened by his own secret,
Then the chest of the entrusted will be even narrower.
Explanation:
If a man has a secret and discloses it to those he has no need to disclose it to, and who then spread the entrusted information, then it is the mans own fault that the secret got out and he should not blame anyone else for it.
The reason for this is because if the man himself, the person who most wants to keep the secret concealed, could not prevent himself from disclosing his secret due to the burden of it on his chest, then surely he should not expect someone else, who does not have any interest in keeping the secret concealed, to desist from disclosing it too.
Imam Shafi’i is advising one to keep his own counsel in matters that directly relate to him. Of course this doesn’t mean forgoing from advice from relevant people, but it means that one must not tell people more than they need to know. This is a principle taught again and again by the Qur’an and the Seerah (biography) of the Prophet (PBUH). In the Qur’an Allah (swt) says:
“And we said “Oh Adam, live you and your wife in Paradise and eat from it comfortably whatever you please; and do not approach this tree lest you become from the wrongdoers.”” (2:35)
Allah (swt) specifically doesn’t mention the type of tree that Adam was forbidden from eating from as it is of no relevance to the point he is trying to make. This information falls into the category of “ilm la yanfa’”, or “knowledge that doesn’t benefit“.
An example of this from the life of the Prophet is the famous hadith of Muadh, where the Prophet disclosed to Muadh that anyone who says the testimony of faith will go to paradise. However the Prophet insisted that Muadh keep the information secret lest the people become complacent.[1] But conversely, the Prophet openly gave glad tidings of Paradise to ten of the Companions[2] as he knew that these ten would not become complacent[3] and that the Muslims would need a pecking order once he left, as well as know who to trust.
It is also an established point of fiqh that concealment of ones sins is obligatory on every Muslim. This is firstly so that the sin does not spread throughout society, secondly, so that the person’s reputation and integrity remains intact[4], and thirdly, so that the person’s sense of doing wrong remains alive and so that he is ashamed of the sin and strives to leave it.
These verses do not mean that the one who spreads the secrets entrusted to him is blameless, for that is clearly not the case, rather, the advice is aimed at the person who has a secret.
We should try and make ourselves from amongst those who do not speak more than is necessary about ourselves, and stay away from sins that force us to have more secrets and guilt in our heart than we can bear.
[1] Muadh revealed this hadith on his deathbed, citing that the Prophet had also forbidden the concealment of knowledge and that he did not want to fall into that sin. (Bukhari book 3 hadith 130)
[2] These were: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali bin Abi talib, Abdur Rahman ibn Awf, Saeed ibn Zaid, Sa’d ibn muadh, Muadh bin Jabl, Talha, and Zubair bin awam
[3] There is a beautiful example in the form of Umar, when, despite knowing he was amongst the ten chosen ones, he still asked Hudaifah bin al Yaman (the one entrusted with the secret list of all the hypocrites by the Prophet before his death) whether or not he was in that list. A man such as that could never become complacent.
[4] Clearly there are exceptions to this, for example in a legal situation, or if one is going to seek medical or psychological help to cure oneself from the sin, in which situations he will have to admit to his sin if it is relevant.
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