Writings

Why do you senselessly feign yourself good by the wound of another? Whence you bestow, another is daily weeping. Do you not believe that the Lord sees those things from heaven? The Highest says, He does not prove of the gifts of the wicked. You shall break forth upon the wretched when you shall have gained a place. One gives gifts that he may make another of no account; or if you have lent on usury, taking twenty-four per cent, you wish to bestow charity that you may purge yourself, as being evil, with that which is evil. The Almighty absolutely rejects such works as these. You have given that which has been wrung from tears; that candidate, oppressed with ungrateful usuries, and become needy, deplores it. Besides having obtained an opportunity for the exactors, your enemy for the present is the people; you consecrated have become wicked for reward. Also you wish to atone for yourself by the gain of wages. O wicked one, you deceive yourself, but none else.