now then i have gathered in this book of mine many meanings that the giver of discernment the most high has benefited me with through the passage of days and the succession of circumstances through what the almighty has granted me of concern for the vicissitudes of time and supervision of its conditions until i spent most of my life in that. i preferred to restrict that to reading it and thinking about it over all the pleasures that most souls incline toward and the increase in the chapters of wealth. i have numbered everything that i have explored of that in this book so that god the most high may benefit from it whomever he wills of his servants from those who reach it what i have tired my soul for and exerted myself for and prolonged my thought over so that he may take it as forgiveness and i have presented it to him as guidance so that it may be
أما بعد، فإني جمعت في كتابي هذا معاني كثيرة أفادنيها واهب التمييز تعالى، بمرور الأيام وتعاقب الأحوال، بما منحني عز وجل من التهمم بتصاريف الزمان والإشراف على أحواله، حتى أنفقت في ذلك أكثر عمري. وآثرت تقييد ذلك بالمطالعة له والفكرة فيه على جميع اللذات التي تميل إليها أكثر النفوس وعلى الازدياد من فصول المال. ورقمت كل ما سبرت من ذلك بهذا الكتاب لينفع الله تعالى به من شاء من عباده، ممن يصل إليه، ما أتعبت فيه نفسي، وأجهدتها فيه وأطلت فيه فكري، فيأخذه عفوا، وأهديته إليه هديا، فيكون ذلك