Aligned sentence by sentence
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— all of this is accomplished through discernment: the capacity to release a trait whenever one wishes and to restrain it whenever one wishes.
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As it says: 'Better slow to anger than a hero, and one who rules his spirit than one who captures a city' (Prov. 16:32).
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I previously noted that the soul has three faculties: desire (shahwa), anger (ghaḍab), and discernment (tamyīz).
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As for the faculty of desire: it is what draws a person toward food, drink, intercourse, pleasing sights, beautiful vistas, pleasant scents, and soft garments.
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As for the faculty of anger: it is what drives a person toward audacity, boldness, obstinacy, indignation, vengeance, arrogance, and the like.
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As for the faculty of discernment: it is what judges the other two faculties with equity.
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Whenever either faculty — or any of its branches — is provoked, the faculty of discernment takes it up for examination and scrutiny.
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If it sees that both its beginning and its outcome are sound, it gives assent — and how much more so when it sees the outcome to be praiseworthy.
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If it sees in either side of a matter — or in any of its ramifications — some harm, it signals its abandonment.
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Any person who follows this principle — whose discernment rules over his desire and anger — is disciplined with the discipline of the wise, as it says: 'The fear of the Lord is the discipline of wisdom' (Prov. 15:33).
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But any person whose desire or anger rules over his discernment is not disciplined; and if one presumes to call this state 'discipline,' it is the discipline of fools — as it says: 'The instruction of fools is folly' (Prov. 16:22), and also: 'Correction is unpleasant for one who forsakes the way' (Prov. 15:10).
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Section III.
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Having premised this — that necessity requires a wise person to arrange for us these loves and aversions and to instruct us how to act regarding them — I say: I