Creative works of Abai

How do our people make living? There are two ways. One is by stealing. A thief hopes to grow fat on what he has stolen, and a bey seeks to increase his herds by recovering what has been stolen from him and more besides. Those in authority will fleece both the bey and the thief by promising the former to help recover his stolen livestock and the latter to evade justice. Your average man will inform on the thief to the authorities, at the same time aiding and abetting him by buy­ing up the stolen goods for a song. Then there is another way: ordinary people are persuaded by crooks to resort to tricks they would otherwise never have dreamt of. Do this or that, they say, and you’ll be rich and famous, you will be regarded as invulnerable and your opponents will fear you. Fanning evil passions and setting people against one another, the swindlers hope to be of service to someone and profit by this. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

When someone teaches the Word of God, whether he does it well or badly, we would sooner bite off our tongue than forbid his preaching, for there is nothing reprehensible in good intentions. He may lack sufficient enlightenment, but let him preach. How­ever, this man ought to remember two essential conditions. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

Iman — this is the unshakeable faith in one, all-powerful Creator, about whose essence and existence it is ordained to us to learn from the revelations of His Prophet, may Allah bless his name.

There are two ways of believing.

Some simply accept the faith, perceiving the vital need for it and its truth, and strengthen their belief by means of reasonable arguments. We call this yakini iman or true faith. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

Has man anything more precious than his heart? Calling someone a man of brave heart, people respect him as a batyr. They have but a poor idea of any other virtues of the human heart. Mercy, kindness, the capacity to treat a stranger as a dear brother and wish him all the blessings one would wish one’s self — all these are the commands of the heart. And love likewise comes from the heart. The tongue that obeys the heart will tell no lie. Only hypocrites forget about the heart. Yet those “men of brave heart” often prove to be unworthy of praise. Unless they value courtesy and honour their vows, are averse to evil and lead lost souls along the straight and narrow path, not following the crowd like a miserable cur, unless they stand up in defence of a righteous cause in the face of all difficulties and not turn from the truth when this is so easy to do — then the heart that beats in the breast of those respected as batyrs is that of a wolf, not a human being. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

There is an essential difference, in my view, between intel­ligent and stupid people.

Coming into this world, man cannot live without being at­tracted and excited by the fascinating things around him. Those days of questioning and passionate interests remain in a person’s memory as the brightest period of life. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

The Kazakh does not worry whether his prayers please God or not. He does what other people do: he gets up and falls face to the ground in supplication. He treats God as though He were a merchant who has come to collect a debt: “That’s all I have, take it if You will, but if You will not — don’t ask me to get livestock out of nowhere!” The Kazakh will not take trouble to learn and purify his faith: “Well, that’s all I know, I can’t get any wiser at my age. It’s enough that people cannot reproach me for not praying. And if my speech is uncouth, that doesn’t matter in the least.”

But is his tongue made differently from other people’s, I won­der?

Will, Reason and Heart once asked Knowledge to settle their argument about who was the most important among them.

Said Will: “Hey, Knowledge, you ought to know that nothing can attain perfection without me: to know one’s self, one has to persevere in learning, and this is impossible without me; only with my aid can a person serve the Most High and worship Him tire­lessly, achi-eve wealth and skill, respect and a successful career. Do I not preserve people from unworthy passions and curb them? Do I not caution them against sin, envy and temptations? Do I not help them to hold back, at the last moment, from the edge of an abyss? How can these two argue with me?” &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

Man should dress modestly and keep himself clean and tidy. Only fops spend more on their clothes than they can afford and worry too much over their appearance.

Fops show off in various ways. One will pay great atten­tion to his face, cultivate his moustache and beard, pamper his body and swagger—now lifting an eyebrow languorously, now tapping his fingers or strutting with arms akimbo; another will adopt a studied carelessness in his foppery and, in an off-hand way, affecting to be “a simple fellow”, will drop hints in passing about his Arabian horse or his rich raiment: “Oh, it’s nothing in particular!’ He goes out of his way to attract the attention of his betters, arouses envy among his equals, and is regarded among his inferiors as the acme of refinement and luxury. They say about him: “What has he got to complain of with a such a horse and clothes like that!” &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

A child is not born a reasonable being. It is only by listening and watching, examining everything by touching and tasting, that it learns what is good and what is bad. The more a child sees and hears, the more it knows. One may learn a good deal by listening to wise men. It is not enough to be endowed with a brain—only by hearing and memorising the teachings of the learnt and by avoiding vices one can grow up a complete person. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »

All of us know: nothing can overrule fate. A feeling of satiety is characteristic man; it does not come of one’s own volition, but is predestined by fate. Having once experienced satiety, one will no longer be able to get rid of it. Even if you do your utmost and manage to shake it off, it will pursue and overwhelm you nonethe­less. &#82&#101&#97&#100&#32&#109&#111&#114&#101 »