if someone were to say that he who avoids taking and acquiring beloved things for fear of grief upon losing them has hastened grief it would be said to him that even if this cautious cautious person has hastened grief what he has hastened is not equal to what he feared falling into from it. this is because the taking advantage of someone who has a child is not like the taking advantage of someone who has lost his child if the man is one of those who takes advantage of not having a child let alone someone else who does not care or pay attention to that and is not at all grieved for it. nor is the grief of someone who has no beloved like the grief of someone who has lost his beloved. it has been narrated about some of the philosophers that it was said to him if you were to take a child and he said i am in trouble and grief from striving to reform this body of mine and this soul of mine which i cannot sustain so how can i take and associate with it the like of her? i heard a wise woman say that she saw one day a woman who was very eager for…
فإن قال قائل إن من توقى اتخاذ المحبوبات واقتناءها خوفا من الغم عند فقدها فقد استعجل غما، قيل له إنه وإن كان هذا المتوقى المحترس قد استعجل غما فليس ما استعجله بمساو لما خاف الوقوع فيه منه. وذلك أنه ليس اغتنام من ولد له كاغتنام من أصيب بولده هذا إن كان الرجل ممن يغتنم بأن لا يكون له ولد فضلا عن غيره ممن لا يبالي ولا يعبأ بذلك ولا يغتم له بتة ولا غم من لا معشوق له كغم من فقد معشوقه. وقد حكي عن بعض الفلاسفة أنه قيل له لو اتخذت ولدا. فقال إني من السعي في إصلاح جسدي هذا ونفسي هذه في مؤن وغموم لا قوام لي بها، فكيف أضم وأقرن إليها مثلها؟ وسمعت مرأة عاقلة تقول إنها عاينت يوما مرأة شديدة التحرق على