A correct meaning of the first saying above is this: since, however long it is, union with transitory beings is transient, it seems brief. A year of such union passes in a second; it is an illusion, a dream, causing regret and sorrow. The human heart can only receive from it the tiniest pleasure within a fraction of a second, since it desires immortality. And one moment's separation seems like not one year, but many. For the arena of separation is broad. Even if only for a second, it inflicts years of destruc­tion on the heart, which yearns for eternity. It bodes of innumerable separations. For physical and lowly loves, the past and future are filled with separations.

While oh the subject, we say this: O man! Don't you want to make your brief, futile life immortal, beneficial, and fruitful? Since humanity demands this, spend your life on the way of the Truly Eternal One. For everything turned to Him receives the man­ifestation of immortality.

Since everyone fervently desires long life and yearns for immortality; and since there is a way of transforming this fleeting life into perpetual life and it is possible to make it lengthy; for sure everyone who has not lost his humanity will seek out that way and try to convert the possibility into reality and will act accordingly. Yes, the way is this: work for God's sake, meet with others for God's sake, labour for God's sake; act within the sphere of "For God, for God's sake, on account of God." Then all the moments of your life will become years.

Alluding to this truth, verses of the Qur'an indi­cate that a single night such as the Night of Power is like a thousand months, that is, around eighty years. The expansion of time, a tried principle among the people of sainthood and reality, also alludes to it. Through this mystery, a few minutes' Ascension become like many years and prove the existence of this truth and demonstrate it in fact. The Ascension of the Prophet (PBUH), which lasted a few hours, had the length, breadth, and comprehensiveness of thousands of years, for by way of it he entered the world of eternity, and a few minutes of that world comprise thousands of years of this.