... To My Son

Two things, Marwan, I want you to set before your eyes, to be for you a lofty goal lighting your path in life.

I want you, my boy, to grow up respecting the law and abiding by the regulations. You, Marwan, will grow up in a young country newly come to independence. Therefore you and your fellows of the rising generation must respect order and the laws, and help the government, hand in hand, to apply the regulations and laws it has laid down for your protection and your benefit—no matter who the persons of the government may be, or what party you belong to—for it represents the law that secures the safety of all. If you do that, we shall have hope of living in a country in which security and peace are firmly settled.

I want you, Marwan, to prefer the interest of the whole to your own interest, and to abide by rules your own humanity inspires in you. Do not think of a pleasure that harms others, even if the law does not forbid that harm. Do not pick a flower from a public garden to enjoy it by yourself; leave it for everyone. Do not set your foot on a bench in a public place where someone else will sit. You are answerable for your deeds before your conscience alone, and were it not for your conscience you would find no restrainer to hold you back. So be a government unto your own self: check it when it turns bad, rebuke it when it speaks to you with any selfishness, and encourage it when it sets aside your own interest before the interest of the whole—for you are part of that whole, and its good comes back to you as it comes back to others.