how wondrous it is! For it contains a subtle meaning, and God has admonished you through it, if you have taken admonition.
(Supplication and Paying Almsgiving)
If you can let no hour of night or day pass without supplicating your Lord during it, do so. When you pay almsgiving, intend by paying it to discharge a right that you deliver to the agent of the one entitled to it: the collector appointed over it by the Real. Do not deliver your almsgiving to anyone other than the ruler’s collector except by the ruler’s command. You then become the collector yourself. Your liability is discharged only if you do what I have mentioned to you. If the collector wrongs those entitled to it, he is responsible for that, not you. A confusion has entered upon people concerning this that they will recognize only in the abode of the Hereafter.
Beware of giving charity to a noble descendant of the People of the Household. Intend whatever you convey to them as a gift, not charity. For if you intend it as charity to them, you sin, unless you inform them of that. If they consume your charity, they sin through consuming it, and you sin through giving them something you are not permitted to give them, imagining nearness in the very essence of distance.
Beware of meddling in God’s wealth without right. Beware of disowning your father, whoever he may be. Do not pursue people’s private faults or defects. Occupy yourself with your own soul, and give your son good manners and a good name.
If you are tried with the companionship of a wife, treat her considerately and descend from your understanding to hers,
