Will anyone heed our advice and listen to our coun
sels? One man may be a volost chief, another a biy. If
they had had the least desire to become wise and learn
sense, would they have sought such posts?
I, too, am a Kazakh. But do I love the Kazakhs or not?
If! did, I would have approved of their ways and would
have found something, however slight, in their conduct to
rejoice or console me, a reason to admire at least some of
their qualities, and keep alive a glimmer of hope. But this
is not so.
People pray to God to send them a child. What does a
man need a child for? They say that one ought to leave an
heir, a son to provide for his parents in their old age and to
pray for them after their death. Is that all?
How do our people make living? There are two ways.
One is by stealing. A thief hopes to grow fat on what he has
stolen, and a bey seeks to increase his herds by recovering
what has been stolen from him and more besides.
When someone teaches the Word of God, whether he
does it well or badly, we would sooner bite of our tongue
than forbid his preaching, for there is nothing reprehensi-
ble in good intentions.
I man this is the unshakeable faith in one, all-power-
full Creator, about whose essence and existence it is
ordained to us to learn from the revelations of His Prophet,
may Allah bless his name.
There are two ways of believing.
Has man anything more precious than his heart?
Calling someone a man of brave heart, people respect him
as a batyr. They have but a poor idea of any other virtues
of the human heart.