Epigrams For The 3rd Millennium

Epigrams For the 3rd Millennium

Omar Sheikh Al-Shabab

2000 AD Interpreted by Sameer Al-Nasser

2010 AD

To Faridah, Ommayah and Ahmmad Al-Faissal

I am human I hold that nothing human is alien to me.

Appendix Author's Acknowledgements About the book 1. Words about Life Life Death Justice Inequity Forgiveness The Right and Rights Time and Memory Habit Freedom and Will Hope Creation Sense Necessity Waiting Patience Money Ends and Means Individual and Ego Human Good and Evil Lie Friendship and Friend

Happiness Pain Love and Affection Power and Dominion 2. Words about Knowledge and Language Mind and Ignorance Science and Knowledge Truth Ideas and Thought Language Silence Question and Answer 3. Words about Experience Politeness and Conduct Experiences in Life Considerations and Words of Wisdom

Acknowledgements Praise be to Allah first and last. It's imperative to start from the very beginning and thank my parents for the good care and educating, and then I come to thank each person who taught me at a school, a university, a mosque, or any of life aspects. I do thank gratefully my friend and wife, Faridah, and then my daughter and son who really endured my fondness of books and their authors for many long years, and still. I thank my friend Sameer Al-Nasser and all the members of my family for their fitting patience and great endurance of my affair during the year of alienation for study and work far from home. As I must perfume the memory of many individuals, I met during my traveling through seven universities, and each had his own prints on my experience. I have to confirm that I am responsible for any flaws, defaults or mistakes, come through out this book, as I am responsible for the consequences of any private opinion of my very own towards Allah and then towards people, weather for award or penalty.

About The Present Book Many times, I found myself answering the questions of my daughter Ommayah, as well as the wonders of my son Ahmmad Al-Faissal, about my childhood and the social environment where I grew up and studied. And each time, I was describing the days of my adultness and prime youth , where I grew up in Al-Mazzah, that was 3 km. far from the center of Damascus city, an island in the middle of a green sea of thick, lush orchards, sleeping peacefully at the foot of a sandy mountain, famous for the same name. I don't know how many times I came to describe the orchards, the vine, the fruitful cactus fences, and the small coherent society which created the place. As I deeply think of the details during these journeys of my memory as I more clearly recognize that such beautiful time is not existed any more. And it is really very far away from the factual situation of my children as it is very far from what they know about Damascus, Syria and the world. What they find available are just American or Italian style fast foods, chocolate and Pepsi, such goodies surpass Damascus fruit, Al-Ahssa dates, the drink of Damascus purple berry, and the natural fresh fruit juice. In the fifties of the twentieth century there was only one physician in Al-Mazzah which I describe to my children, and there was only one street, called the airport street or Palestine street because it was leading to both, the north of Palestine and the airport. During the fifties and the sixties too, the greatest amusement for the young and the whole society of Damascus, in general, was watching films in the movie theatres; which few of them are still struggling for survival against videos, TV and Internet, while other are moribund and waiting for extinction as Syria Cinema which was on the right of Suk Al-Hamidiyah entrance , Omayah Cinema which was in Al-Bahssa near AlMarjah. The building and construction development made AlMazzah a luxurious zone that attracts foreign embassies, as it made it full of gyms, parks, high buildings and private villas, in addition to many schools, scientific institutes, colleges of Damascus university and students housing. There are hundreds of physicians, specialist clinics, many private hospitals and three huge university hospitals provided with the latest equipments,

apparatus and facilities. All these things and more are available now on Al-Mazzah area which became one of Damascus suburbs. But the law of evolution never leaves a place for a weak. So the small stream which was called Al-Mazzah Canal – one of Barada's seven branches - and the other branch which was called Al-Dirani, these two streams that were running through; what was called The Eastern Ghottah; irrigating lands and watering people; have no real existence now except as swage water canals, carrying pestilence for people and death for the remaining few trees. And for Al-Mazzah citizens, I can say: they have packed together into small groups, some of them dwelled among the orchards that are threatened by public possess, and others moved to near villages unable to afford for new houses or even small apartments in their native neighborhood. The various development; during a half of a century which I lived thirty two years of it in Al-Mazah; caused an amazing change not only in this small village of Al-Ghottah, but all over the world, that every one in it is running after the civilization of technology according to his steps and mentality. So from this point, I can notice a crack; in my stories about my childhood and youth in Al-Mazzah; separating the romantic story from the actual development, and from this point too, I had got a notion of introducing an individual attestation to my children and their generation about my generation which lived its childhood in the fifties and its adolescence in the sixties, my generation that witnessed Syria, independent, developing by the resolution of its sons, clear of any intruder or foreigner. I tried my best to keep my private considerations about science, knowledge, language and my stands towards them; within the walls of my own experience, they ended up in generality though, anyhow they are mere thousand categorical statements; intended for my children who did not know Damascus and life as I did, and who do not hear the echo which I hear from Al-Mazzah the old, from its prison on the western mountain and from its trees that hold the rest of its owners. In this book, the order of the categorical statements is not more than nominating the subjects that come together many times. These considerations are just scenes from my memory, they reflect my own humble experience and opinions, and they are not joined together in order to form one text. I wrote them in separated times during the last two years of the twentieth

century, and the aim of writing them is just the communication by narration, experiment and opinion, with my children, and with every one who wants to know a witness of a man that lived fifty three years in the twentieth century. It is a witness for all ones who are going towards the third millennium. It is a witness that may denigrate its writer or commend him, because the time is neither good nor bad, but its subjects are the targeted ones, and this matter is left by necessity to the generation of my children, the generation of the first century of the third millennium. Omar Sheikh AlShabab Algiers 21/7/1999 Sameer Al-Nasser Saudi Arabia 6/5/2009

Life 1.

Life is a day that has four seasons.

2.

The spring of life is a day of gladness.

3.

The day we are on is the whole life.

4.

The will of life is stronger than any evil.

5.

Is the end of the story the end of life?

6. My life has no meaning unless I leave for you what you can remember me with. The decease of any rose is an omen of birth commencement for ten ones. 7.

8.

Life saddens all.

Life is stronger than death: let death scythes trees, animals and humans, the seeds of life will always resurrect newly. 9.

10.

Is there an end? Or is it just a game runs and runs?

11.

Life is successive seconds.

12.

Life is days.

13.

Hopes are steeds, we race life course on.

14.

All life ever does is being, and human is a victim in.

15.

Life is vaster than book.

16.

Law is definite but life is infinite absolute.

Life is a succession of days and nights, we witness that during the different evolution stages of it, sometimes it sounds easy, others difficult, and actually there is nothing easy or 17.

difficult in it, except what happens to us or to the others around. If you escaped from the arrows and spears of life, it would have left you to die without an assistant. 18.

19.

Life is able to comprise whatever we do in.

Life does not get bored of any one, but some ones get bored of it inconsiderately, others considerately. 20.

Life is stronger than books, but books strengthen us against life. 21.

Life is measured by days and year, but actually it must be measured by achievements and wisdom. 22.

23. The law of life is like a train railway, we can predict many aspects from it, but we can not change its direction.

Death _______________________________________________________ Well timed death is the best of solutions.

24.

25. Human fears death because of the ideas that he spread about. 26.

Death settles all disputes.

27.

Death is a perpetual cessation of language use.

28.

Death is a full stop ends a long article.

29.

Let's commemorate the dead as better than he did in

fact. To remember the absent with what he was better than

30.

us in. Each triumph has its own pride except that over death, as you feel triumphant as you recognize that it had postponed you for another day. 31.

Death is the last motion at the threshold of utter stillness.

S

Justice ____________________________________ Justice is to make difference between people, and not to make them equal. 32.

33.

Justice suppresses iniquity.

34.

Justice is over all virtues.

35.

Justice minimizes opinion's extremity.

If you were not fair on treating a matter, you would have sentenced yourself unjust 36.

Justice is not to be fair to oneself against the other, but to be fair to the other against the tyranny of oneself. 37.

To be in charge of trials is very difficult, and it is better to avoid it, if a judge were fair on thousand affairs, but just for one time he were unfair, that one would be of grate danger against him. 38.

39. Justice is to be fair to people when they are absent, even against yourself. Don't be afraid of the fair nor of the wise they both are often under one gown. 40.

41. Being fair to a foe is stronger and more obvious than being fair to a beloved one Justice is not to ask for and get our rights, but it is to give every one that has right with us his own right. 42.

To acknowledge the other's right- what ever it was- is a kind of justice. 43.

Who seeks justice must lower himself to the level of his adversary. 44.

Who asks the others for being fair must avoid iniquity himself. 45.

Who asks for justice thinks that the verdict is always in his favour. 46.

Justice often embarrasses the man in front of those he judges. 47.

48.

Justice is existed in every motion and act that we do.

49.

It is not necessary for the fair to be loved.

50.

Most people advocate the oppressor more than the

fair. It is seldom for justice to end up with direct benefit for the fair. 51.

52.

To ask for justice is easy but to do justice is difficult.

It is said that the fair has to be relaxed and unwind, but in fact, he must beware those he did not go along with their whims. 53.

We recourse to the fair when we are not able to stand for ourselves. 54.

I prefer the fair when he judges in my favour more than against me. 55.

56.

The justice of the fair appears when he defies the

unjust. Justice is to be fair to one, who has right but he did not take it. 57.

58. By justice all things run well but when iniquity prevails people come into mess.

59. Justice satisfies very few people but it makes many people angry. It is justice to know the limits of ourselves, so we neither postulate what doesn't belong to us nor repudiate our right. 60.

61. It is justice to face the wanton, the intruder and the unjust. 62.

The free seeks for justice in each affair.

The dominance of iniquity is just a while, but permanent is the prevalence of justice. 63.

The unjust verdicts are always refused, but that never happens to the fair one. 64.

65.

To acknowledge the animal rights is one of justice

ways. 66.

Justice is one of the honesty ways.

67.

Justice lives for ever, even in the memory of the unjust.

68.

Justice is serenity in one's heart and calm for matters.

Justice is a word of truth to the face of the one who dislikes it. 69.

Justice is the twin of the truth, and you are fair when you give rights to the owners of. 70.

71.

The fair is fair by truth.

Justice is measured by reluctance to the acceptance of iniquity and aggression. 72.

Justice prevents any aggression against the other or even against oneself. 73.

74.

Justice accompanies piety.

The fair may oppresses himself but he seeks redress for the others. 75.

76.

It is impossible for the fair to have malice or hatred.

To be fair to persons, we don’t love, shows justice more clearly. 77.

78.

It may for justice to bring a lot of dangers against who

does. 79.

The fair is not beloved by those who jump over the

laws. That does justice, does it even though the verdict were against him. 80.

81.

It may be justice to do ourselves justice.

82.

Who does justice to one affair is not fair.

Justice raises the human up to the highest degree of humanity. 83.

84.

That does justice never regrets.

85.

Do justice and never sleep.

86.

Do justice and keep on cautious.

87.

The fairest of people is one of them.

88.

Who seeks justice in all matters comes to piety.

Who walks on the way of justice must endure the results. 89.

It is justice to avoid exaggeration weather for praise or for aspersions. 90.

Justice can be in keeping silent, and thus it remains secret, or it can be in what we utter. 91.

92.

Justice never meets with irresponsibility.

93.

Justice is more effective than iniquity.

94.

I prefer to be fair even if I were aggrieved.

95. To seek justice is difficult, but to do justice is more difficult. 96.

If you set me in my position that is justice of you.

Justice is to feel happy when giving rights as when as taking them. 97.

98. The fair is self-satisfied even if all people get angry with. Who did not consent to justice would have done injustice. 99.

100. It may be justice, the inequality between peoples, affairs and

circumstances. 101. It is not a way of justice to apply the same rule to all

circumstances and situations. 102. Justice sometimes obliges one to control sight and body

motions. 103. Refusing to accept excellencies is a way of justice. 104. Justice never puts right between the evil ones. 105. Who seeks justice should endure the verdict even if it were

against him. 106. The fair redresses the other.

107. The fair is pious even in his food and drink. 108. The fair makes life easier for those who are around him.

109. Justice needs sternness and severity to be operative. 110. Nearly all the people of justice are the people of seriousness. 111. There is no need for people to flatter the fair. 112. Every one who knows the fair feels safe from him. 113. Justice is from the soul purity and the mind aptitude.

114. Justice may be in talking about what we love. 115. Justice is the measure of high communities and cultures.

116. The wise man never get angry with justice. 117. The gallant never refuses justice.

118.