Mercy

Brother, you ask me how I live?! I give you a hint, and do not declare it outright!
I live the life of brotherhood. And I feel brotherhood, and I deal justly with all people, and I give them what I would wish them to give me in turn.
And I hate no one, and I despise no one.
And I wrong no one by word or deed.
I bear and forbear, I console and I serve...
This is my life. And this is my deep faith.

☆

I have felt, with the deepest feeling, the bitterness of life when people's hearts grow cold and their consciences flicker out;
and my heart — whenever the breasts around me froze,
and eyes were emptied of the merciful glance, and ribs ran dry of tenderness — would fill with affection and mercy and understanding.
It shines with gladness when hearts shine with gladness, and it weeps with sorrow whenever the moans of the sorrowing rise.
Ah, if only hearts were filled with mercy!

☆

Be merciful, for happiness has no secret more telling than this.
For merciful hearts rarely grieve or despond,
and often has blessing come in their train with happiness and contentment. And stretch out your hand to raise your brother from his stumble,
and to help your sister. And smile, though the heavens and the earths scowl around you — for man is man
— and we are all brothers — if only hearts were filled with mercy.
Man is man, wherever he may be, and wherever he goes; how flimsy are the barriers that divide him — barriers of land and waters, of states and countries!
And how small is the planet that bears him, though homes be far and the journey distant, though the horizons stretch wide,
and desert rise beyond desert!
If only hearts were filled with mercy!

☆

Man is man in his nature and his making,
and he is the same in his virtue and his vice;
yet man becomes the noble, crowned king —
if only hearts were filled with mercy.

"From the English" — Iraq —