And when the prohibition of that is a matter of its opposites, and the command to be moderate in one’s demeanor necessitates fairness in speech, and fairness in speech and walking is not on the path of arrogance and pride, it may lead to excessive walking and talking or hastening in walking and secretly and loudly raising one’s voice beyond limits. He said, being cautious in the matter of noble character regarding what resembles the blameworthy state: ﴿And be moderate﴾ meaning be just and take a middle course ﴿in your walking﴾, neither excessive nor deficient, avoiding the leaps of the arrogant and the creeping of the sluggish. And Ibn Mas'ud said they were prohibited from the hurriedness of the Jews and the creeping of the Christians. The intention in actions is like fairness in weights - Al-Razi said in Al-Lawa'ih, and it is the gentle walking that is not affected by pretense before creation, neither by humility nor by arrogance. ﴿And lower﴾ meaning reduce, and for what was mentioned he said: ﴿of your voice﴾ by affirming 'of' so that your voice does not become objectionable, and you become like a donkey by raising your voice beyond necessity. However, with necessity, like in the call to prayer, it is commanded.

And when raising one's voice above the norm is considered an abomination, just as lowering it below the norm is seen as lethargy or deviation and arrogance, and since He indicated the prohibition of this with "min," I understand that both extremes are blameworthy. He justified the prohibition of the first by indicating with the form of "af'al" that all raising is included in the abomination, mentioning the worst of it by depicting it in the ugliest form to repel from it. He said: "Indeed, the most abominable of voices" [meaning all of them] that share in the abomination by being raised above necessity. He excluded the speech from the term of comparison and made it a metaphor, depicting the voice of the one who raises his voice above necessity in the form of braying and made the one who raises his voice like a donkey, exaggerating in the disparagement and indicating that it is from Allah's dislike for it. He said: "The voice of the donkeys" meaning this type, due to its excessive loudness without necessity. Its beginning is a whinny and its end is a grunt, and they are the actions of the people of Hell. He singled it out to be a text indicating the intention of the type so that it would not be thought that gathering is a condition in this, and for mentioning the donkey with that is a rhetoric of blame and insult that is not applicable to others. Therefore, it is disliked to explicitly mention its name. This implies that raising one's voice with necessity is not blameworthy, for it is neither objectionable nor repulsive. These verses have called to the high morals, which are the mothers of the three virtues: wisdom, chastity, and courage. They commanded justice in them, which is the duty of moderation, which is the gathering of virtues. They prohibited the vices of morals, which are the extremes that are the source of the resulting vices due to excess and deficiency. Establishing prayer, which is the spirit of worship based on knowledge, is the secret of wisdom and prohibition. He commanded courage and prohibited cowardice, and in the prohibition of arrogance, there is also a prohibition of recklessness. Moderation in walking and [lowering in] voice is a command for chastity and a prohibition of desperation, rigidity, lewdness, and immorality. In the prohibition of desperation, there is a prohibition of what may necessitate it from the mischief, which is thinking with deceit leading to the curse, and from the decline into ignorance and heedlessness. The one who explains this is what Sheikh Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani said in his words on the consensus of his hint. He said: Indeed, the Creator, glorified and exalted is He, has instilled in man three powers: the first is the basis for perceiving realities, the yearning to contemplate the consequences, and the ability to distinguish between benefits and harms. This is expressed through the rational, intellectual, and tranquil soul. The second is the basis for attracting benefits and seeking refuge in food, drink, and other things. It is called the appetitive power, the animalistic power, and the commanding soul. The third is the basis for daring to face dangers and the desire for dominance and elevation. It is the anger power, the predatory power, and the reproaching soul. From the moderation of the first movement arises wisdom, from the second chastity, and from the third courage. Thus, the mothers of virtues are these three, and anything else is merely branches and combinations of them. Each of them is prone to excess and deficiency, which are two vices. As for wisdom, it is the knowledge of realities as they are to the best of one's ability, and it is the beneficial knowledge expressed in the self's awareness of what it has and what it is owed, referred to in His saying: "And whoever is given wisdom has certainly been given much good" [Al-Baqarah: 269]. Its excess is the foolishness, which is the use of thought in what is not appropriate, such as the ambiguous matters, and in a manner that is not appropriate, like opposing the laws - we seek refuge with Allah from knowledge that does not benefit. I said: It is with a ج followed by an omitted letter and then a singular form and then a ز taken from الجربز - with a ضم, meaning deceit, that is vile deceit. And Allah knows best. Its deficiency is the ignorance which is the disabling of the intellectual power by will and refraining from acquiring beneficial knowledge. As for courage, it is the submission of the predatory to the rational so that its daring is according to the perception without confusion in the present matters, so that its action is beautiful, and its patience is commendable. Its excess is recklessness, meaning daring to what is not appropriate, and its deficiency is cowardice, meaning caution from what is not appropriate. As for chastity, it is the submission of the animalistic to the rational, so that its actions are according to the demands of the rational, to be safe from being enslaved by desires and using pleasures. Its excess is lewdness and immorality, meaning falling into increasing pleasures beyond what is necessary, and its deficiency is rigidity, meaning silence about seeking pleasure to the extent permitted by reason and law, preferring it over creation. Thus, the moderates are virtues, and the extremes are vices. When the three virtues are mixed, a similar state is achieved, which is justice. By this consideration, He expressed justice as moderation, meaning in His saying: "And thus We have made you a just nation" [Al-Baqarah: 143]. To this, it is referred to in His saying, blessings and peace be upon him: "The best of affairs are their middle ones." Wisdom in the animalistic soul is the preservation of the body, which is composed of the rational soul to reach its perfection suitable for it and its intended goal. In the predatory power, it is the breaking of the animalistic and overcoming it and preventing the expected corruption from its domination. He stipulated moderation in its actions so that the rational soul does not enslave their desires and divert them from their perfection and intended goal. This is the end.