So were Our Pious Predecessors

Every man needs models and examples to walk on, and even if the avant-garde of the caravan may seem far from the horizon, we must never lose sight of it and deviate from the traces it has left behind, because by focusing too much on the ambient mediocrity, we quickly become deceived about ourselves and others. Thus, Abu Qilabah said: “Scholars are comparable to the stars by which one guides oneself, and the torches which one follows. If they disappear, people are hesitant, and if they neglect them, they go astray.”

This is the second version of Thus Were Our Pious Predecessors. This was essential as the first left us with regrets. Indeed, these stories of the pious predecessors are sources of life from which one never tires of coming to drink, and what springs from them is so safe that the thirst is never quenched. We therefore regretted having discarded so many gems in our first selection, and we had to correct this error and give this category of work a dimension more in line with its value.