The Honour of Prophets — Page 21
21 thousand enemies —such a man would naturally pull hearts towards himself and people would surely love him even if they derive no benefit from his unparalleled bravery and courage. In fact, even if this person resided in a distant land, which the people had never seen, or even if he lived in the past, yet they would still listen to his tales with admiration and would love him for his excellences. Now what is the cause of such love? Has this wrestler shown benevolence to anyone? Obviously he has not been kind to anyone, so the only cause for love in this case is beauty. Similarly, there is no doubt that all spiritual qualities are also a form of beauty—they are qualities which may be termed as beautiful morals and attributes, and they correspond to physical beauty. Now, the distinction between goodness and beauty of morals and attributes is that the excellent morals and attributes of a person are deemed goodness only when and only in relation to a person who actually derives benefit or advantage from the effects of the excellent moral or attribute. Therefore, excellent morals or qualities shall only be deemed goodness with relation to such a person who benefits from the virtuous deed or attribute and remembers the act with sentiments of praise and grati tude. But as for the rest, the excellent moral qualities of such a person would be deemed as beauty. For instance,