and they reach from his purification and praise what he loves. and from the calamities of conceit is that it leads to deficiency in the matter in which conceit occurs because the conceited person does not seek to increase nor to acquire nor borrow from others in the matter from which he is conceited about himself. because the one who is conceited about his horse does not seek to replace it with something better than it because he does not see that there is a horse better than it and the one who is conceited about his work does not increase from it because he does not see that there is more in it. and the one who does not increase from something will inevitably decrease and fall behind the rank of his peers and likes because these if they are not conceited will not cease to increase and will not cease to increase and advance so they will not be long before they surpass the conceited person and the conceited person will not be long before they fall behind them. among the things that repel the selfadmirer is that a man should leave the consideration of his faults and virtues to others as we mentioned before where we mentioned a mans recognition of his own faults and that he should not consider or compare himself to a vile and lowly people who do not have a great share of the thing that he admires in himself or that he is in a country whose people are in this state. for whoever is careful of these two matters will continue to encounter every day what will make him more inclined to belittle himself than to be selfadmiring. in short he should not magnify or exalt himself in his own eyes until he exceeds the status of his peers in the eyes of others nor should he be small or diminished until he falls below them or below those who are below him and below them in the eyes of others. for if he does that and evaluates himself accordingly he will be free from the vanity of selfadmiration and the baseness of baseness and people will call him the one who knows his own worth. what we have also mentioned in this chapter is sufficient so let us now talk about envy.
ذلك ويبلغون من تزكيته ومدحه ما يحب. ومن بلايا العجب أنه يؤدي إلى النقص في الأمر الذي يقع به العجب، لأن المعجب لا يروم التزيد ولا الاقتناء والاقتباس من غيره في الباب الذي منه يعجب بنفسه. لأن المعجب بفرسه لا يروم أن يستبدل به ما هو أفره منه لأنه لا يرى أن فرسا أفره منه، والمعجب بعمله لا يتزيد منه لأنه لا يرى أن فيه مزيدا. ومن لم يستزد من شئ ما نقص لا محالة وتخلف عن رتبة نظرائه وأمثاله، لأن هؤلاء إذا كانوا غير معجبين لم يزالوا مستزيدين ولم يزالوا لذلك متزيدين مترقين، فلا يلبثوا أن يجاوزوا المعجب ولا يلبث المعجب أن يتخلف عنهم. ومما يدفع به المعجب أن يكل الرجل اعتبار مساويه ومحاسنه إلى غيره على ما ذكرنا قبل حيث ذكرنا تعرف الرجل عيوب نفسه، وأن لا يعتبر ولا يقيس نفس بقوم أخساء أدنياء ليس لهم حظ وافر من الشيء الذي أعجب به من نفسه، أو يكون في بلد هذه حالة أهله. فأنه من احترس من هذين البابين لم يزل يرد عليه كل يوم ما يكون به إلى تنقص نفسه أميل منه إلى العجب بها. وفي الجملة فإنه ينبغي أن لا تكبر وتعظم نفسه عنده حتى يجاوز مقدار نظرائه عند غيره، ولا تصغر ولا تقل حتى ينحط عنهم أو عمن هو دونه ودونهم عند غيره. فإنه إذا فعل ذلك وقوم نفسه عليه كان بريا من زهو العجب وخسة الدناءة، وسماه الناس العارف بقدر نفسه. وفيما ذكرنا أيضا في هذا الباب كفاية، فلنقل الآن في الحسد