Abandon, О wretch, thy lamentation; reliance on God shall be thy refuge!

Lamenting is naught but an increase of woe; июе itself, that is thy dirge!

Find thy way to the author of woe; thy woe shall then be pleasing as the green verge!

But if thou findest him not then is the whole world one endless cruel image!

Thou who dost suffer from a worldful of гіюе —why complain at one pain? Make God thy refuge!

Smile thus in the face of thy woe; woe itself then shall smile, and, smiling, shrink and quite change!

If in single-handed combat one smiles at an awesome enemy, his enmity will be changed to conciliatoriness; his hostility will become a mere joke, will shrink and disappear. If one confronts misfortune with reliance on God the result will be similar.

Third Matter: Each age has particualr charac­teristics. In this age of neglect misfortune has changed its form. In certain ages and for certain persons, misfortune is not in reality misfortune, but rather a Divine favour. Since I consider those afflicted with illness in the present age to be fortu­nate - on condition that their illness does not affect their religion— it does not occur to me to oppose illness and misfortune, nor to take pity on the afflicted. Whenever I encounter some afflicted youth. I find that he is more concerned with his religious duties and the Hereafter than are his peers. From this I deduce that illness does not constitute a misfortune for such people, but rather a bounty from God. It is true that illness causes him distress in his brief, transient and worldly life, but it is beneficial for his eternal life. It is to be regarded as a kind of worship. If he were healthy he would be unable to maintain the state he enjoyed while sick and would fall into dissipation, as a result of the impetuousness of youth and the dissipated nature of the age.

CONCLUSION: God Almighty, in order to display His infinite power and unlimited mercy, has made inherent in man infinite weakness and unlimited want. Further, in order to display the infinite variety of the impress of His Names, He has created man like a machine receptive to pain and pleasure perceived from an infinite variety of directions. Within that human machine He has placed hundreds of instruments, and for each instrument He has appointed different pains and pleasures, duties and rewards. Simply, all of the Divine Names manifested in the macrocosm that is the world also have manifestations in the microcosm that is man. Beneficial matters like good health, well-being, and pleasures cause man to offer thanks and prompt the human machine to perform its functions in many respects, and thus man becomes like a factory producing thanks.

Similarly, by means of misfortune, illness and pain, and other motion-inducing contingencies, the other cogs of the human machine are set in motion and revolution. The mine of weakness, helplessness, and poverty inherent in human nature is made to work. Not the tongue alone, but each limb is transformed into a tongue, begins to seek refuge and aid. Thus by means of those con­tingencies man becomes like a moving pen com­prising thousands of different pens. He inscribes the appointed course of his existence on the page of his life or the Tablet in the World of Simili­tudes; he puts forth a declaration of the Divine Names; and becomes himself an ode to the glory of God, thus fulfilling the duties of his nature.