وَقَالَ (عليه السلام):
Amir al-mu'minin, peace be upon him, said:
صَوَابُ الرَّأْيِ بِالدُّوَلِ:
Correctness of decision goes together with power.
يُقْبِلُ بِإِقْبَالِهَا
The one emerges with the other's emergence
وَيَذْهَبُ بِذَهَابِهَا.
and disappears when the other disappears. 85
85. When anyone's star is auspicious and his luck is good, he steps automatically towards the goal in view, and his mind confronts no perplexity in determining the correct way of approach; but the person whose luck is about to ebb stumbles even in the light and his mental faculties become paralysed. Consequently, when the downfall of the Barmakids began, ten persons from among them assembled for consultation about a matter but were not able to take a decision even after long discussion. Seeing this Yahya said, "By Allah, it is a forerunner of our decline and a sign of our downfall that even ten of us have not been able to settle a matter, although while when we were in ascendancy one of us used to solve ten problems easily.
