In Section 8 of Jami's Khiradnama-yi Iskandari (the seventh masnavi of the Haft Awrang), the poet-father distills a program for his son's moral education. He urges the son to make his ear receptive like an oyster shell that closes silently over a raindrop to form a pearl, so that the pearl of counsel can settle into the heart; an ear that does not carry the light of understanding (nur-i hush) inward is no better than a mouse-hole. Knowledge, he insists, is barren unless joined to practice, for learning that is not paired with action belongs only to the unwise. He completes the lesson by binding right conduct to truthfulness, directing the heart to keep faith with God in every deed.