2026/03/04
19:02 No. 2
Noticed today that I had a playlist from a year ago called: "No. 2". It includes all the music I enjoy with "No. 2". I used to think of 2 as a favorite number too, as a kid.
#19:53 Mercy, and a journal template.
Last week I had an argument with my Mother of which I was righteous and she was in error. That argument, which I thought was simple and justified, ended up leaving a mark on me. In the end, I managed to convince her of my points. She accepted them. But then she said, “Okay, what about mercy?”. She told me then about a man from town who once had a serious argument with his distant brother. Time passed. And when he finally saw him, he chose to forgive everything. That story stayed with me. After the discussion was over and the house grew quiet, I began thinking about moments in my life, times when I insisted on being right, when I held onto pride, when I could have been softer but wasn’t. And I cried.
I was also reading recently Aristotle’s 10 Rules for a Happy Life (See 07:10 Rules for a happy life from Aristotle) and I thought that the missed one thing mercy. When I was young at the Kutab, there was that activity we used to do when we were learning about a new Hadith or Nathr, we called it practical activities, for example if we were reading today a text about being kind to someone who is ill, visiting the burial grounds, or doing some kind of prayers, we would go outside and try to do these things (it was very fun activity to look for someone who is ill and to make them a good visit, I remember doing my first open-source intelligence activities in a similar situation). I decided to do the same thing with the virtues that Aristotle presented, and to add mercy to them. Everyday, I will read these questions, and contemplate how much of these I've implemented throughout the day, and how can I do more of them tomorrow. #Modus Vivendi
Evening Account
Have you practiced one of these today?
Not as performance.
But quietly, the way good things are done
when no one is watching but yourself.
✦ After Aristotle ✦
"Name your fears, and face them."
What frightened you today? Did you walk toward it, or away from it?
"Know your appetites, and govern them."
Where did desire pull you? Did you hold the reins, or let them slip?
"Be neither a miser nor a fool with what you have."
Did you give freely today? Of money, time, or attention?
"Think how nobly it may be done, not merely how cheaply."
Was there a moment where you chose generosity of spirit over smallness?
"Turn your eyes from the trivial; dwell on what endures."
What occupied your mind today, the shallow or the deep? The passing or the meaningful?
"True strength is a temper well-kept, not freely vented."
Did anger visit you today? How did you receive it?
"Never lie, and least of all to yourself."
Was there a moment you were tempted to embellish, diminish, or look away from the truth?
"Let go of what is owed to you; take the smaller share with grace."
Did you clutch at fairness today, or release it?
"Forbear the faults of others as you would have yours forgotten."
Who wronged you today, real or imagined? Does the grievance still live in your chest?
"Define your morality. Live up to it, even behind closed doors."
In the moments when only you were watching, what did you do?
"To notice what is given is the beginning of wisdom."
What graced your day that you almost let pass unremarked?
"To be elsewhere while here is to forfeit the only life you have."
When were you truly, fully here today, not somewhere else in your mind?
"The unexamined life is not worth living, but neither is the unexplored one."
What surprised or puzzled you today? Did you lean in?
"What cannot be rushed must be endured, and endurance, practiced well, becomes grace."
What tested your patience today? Did you meet it with steadiness?
Who needed mercy from you today, a stranger, a friend, yourself? Did you offer it?
And so the day closes. Whatever was not practiced today
is not lost. Only deferred to tomorrow's account.
In a few words: what kind of person were you today?
The list
- Courage
- Temperance
- Liberality
- Magnificence
- Greatness of Soul
- Gentleness
- Truthfulness
- Equity
- Forgiveness
- Modesty
- Gratitude
- Presence
- Curiosity
- Patience
- Mercy