A Muslim traditionМусульманское предание
1 passageотрывков: 1
Each date opens its day beside the list, with these passages marked.Каждая дата открывает свой день рядом со списком, где отрывки этого автора отмечены.
4. Лучший ответ безумцу — молчание. Каждое слово ответа отскочит от безумца на тебя. Платить обидой за обиду — всё равно, что подкидывать дров в пламя, но тот, кто встречает обвинителя с спокойствием, этим самым уже победил его.
Магомет и Али встретили раз человека, который, считая Али своим обидчиком, начал ругать его. Али переносил это с терпением и в молчании довольно долго, но потом не удержался и стал отвечать ругательствами на ругательства. Тогда Магомет пошел дальше, оставив этих двоих оканчивать свою ссору. Когда Али опять подошел к Магомету, он с обидой сказал ему: зачем ты оставил меня одного переносить ругательства этого дерзкого человека? Магомет отвечал: когда этот человек бранил тебя, а ты молчал, я видел вокруг тебя десять ангелов, которые отвечали ему. Но когда ты начал отвечать ему бранью, ангелы все оставили тебя, отошел и я.
4. The best answer to a fool is silence. Every word of answer will bounce back from the fool onto you. To repay offense with offense is the same as throwing wood on a fire; but whoever meets an accuser with calm has by that very thing already defeated him.
Muhammad and Ali once met a man who, considering Ali to have wronged him, began to curse him. Ali bore this patiently and in silence for quite a long time, but then could not restrain himself and began to answer curses with curses. Then Muhammad walked on, leaving the two of them to finish their quarrel. When Ali came up to Muhammad again, he said to him, offended: Why did you leave me alone to bear the curses of this insolent man? Muhammad answered: When this man was abusing you and you kept silent, I saw around you ten angels who were answering him. But when you began to answer him with abuse, the angels all left you, and I too went away.
From The Sacred Anthology · shortened by Tolstoy (more).
What Tolstoy read · The Sacred AnthologyThe only way to answer a fool is to answer nothing. Each word of reply can only recoil from the insensate to thyself. To return insult to the insulter is to increase his disrespect, as fuel feeds flame ; but he who meets an accuser with calmness has already confuted him.
The venerable man bore this for some time in silence, but at length his patience gave way, and he returned railing for railing. Upon this Mahomet passed on, leaving the two to settle their quarrel as they could.
I saw ten angels around thee who replied to him. But when thou didst begin to return his insults, the angels one by one left thee, and I also departed …
Source text: archive.orgRelated · Mishcat-ul-Masabih, tr. A. N. Matthews… there was an angel .with you, who returned the abuse for you; and when you returned it, the angel went away, and the devil came.
Source text: archive.orgDetails
The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. The Sacred Anthology (1874), no. CCCXX, Sufferance, pp. 213-214; the story marked 'Mussulman Tradition', the section indexed as Persian.
Conway's section 'Sufferance', less its first two sentences ('Patience is the column which sustains Prudence. It is not the human force which hurls a man to the ground, but that which restrains the power that might do so.'), close. 'The only way to answer a fool is to answer nothing' becomes «Лучший ответ безумцу — молчание» (the best answer to a fool is silence); 'has already confuted him' becomes «этим самым уже победил его» (has already overcome him); 'the angels one by one left thee' becomes «ангелы все оставили тебя» (the angels all left you). Tolstoy's signature is Conway's margin to the story, 'Mussulman Tradition'; Conway names no source for the first paragraph and lists the section in his index as Persian. The story corresponds to a tradition about Abu Bakr, told in the Mishkat from Abu Hurayrah (Abu Dawud, Kitab al-Adab, 4896-4897, has it from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab and from Abu Hurayrah), in which the man reviles Abu Bakr, not Ali, and one angel, not ten, answers for him: 'there was an angel with you, who returned the abuse for you; and when you returned it, the angel went away, and the devil came' (Matthews, 1810). Where the version with Ali and ten angels comes from was not found. Tolstoy put the story into «На каждый день» (25 May) and The Path of Life (ch. XXIII, § VII) under the same signature. Not in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903).