To take another example, the eye is one of the senses, a window through which the spirit looks out on this world. If you do not sell it to God Almighty, but rather employ it on behalf of the soul, by gazing upon a handful of transient, impermanent beauties and scenes, it will sink to the level of being a pander to lust and the concu¬piscent soul. But if you sell the eye to your All-Seeing Maker, and employ it on His behalf and within limits traced out by Him, then your eye will rise to the rank of a reader of the great book of being, a witness to the miracles of dominical art, a blessed bee sucking on the blossoms of mercy in the garden of this globe.
Yet another example is that of the tongue and the sense of taste. If you do not sell it to your Wise Creator, but employ it instead on behalf of the soul and for the sake of the stomach, it sinks and declines to the level of a gatekeeper at the stable of the stomach, a watchman at its factory. But if you sell it to the Generous Provider, the sense of taste contained in the tongue will rise to the rank of a skilled overseer at the treasuries of Divine compassion, a grateful inspector in the kitchens of God's eternal power.
So look well, О intelligence! See the difference between a tool of destruction and the key to all being! And look carefully, О eye! See the difference between an abominable pander and the learned overseer of the Divine library! And taste well, О tongue! See the difference between a stable doorkeeper or a factory watchman and the superintendent of the treasury of God's mercy!
Compare all other members and limbs to these, and then you will understand that in truth the believer acquires a nature worthy of Paradise and the un-believer a nature conforming to Hell. The reason for each of them attaining his respective value is that the believer, by virtue of his faith, uses the Trust of his Creator on His behalf and within the limits traced out by Him, whereas the unbeliever betrays the Trust and employs it for the sake of the concupiscent soul.
The Fourth Profit: Man is helpless and exposed to numerous misfortunes. He is indigent, and his needs are numerous. He is weak, and the burden of life is most heavy. If he does not rely on the Omnipotent One of Glory, place his trust in Him and confidently submit to Him, his conscience will always be troubled. Fruitless torments, pains and regrets will overwhelm him and intoxicate him, or turn him into a beast.
The Fifth Profit: Those who have experienced sapiential knowledge and had unveiled to them the true nature of things, the elect who have wit¬nessed the truth, are all agreed that the exalted reward for all the worship and glorification of God performed by your members and instruments will be given to you at the time of greatest need, in the form of the fruits of Paradise.
If you spurn this trade with its fivefold profit, in addition to being deprived of its profit, you will suffer fivefold loss.
The First Loss: The property and offspring to which you are so attached, the soul and its caprice that you worship, the youth and life with which you are infatuated, all will vanish and be lost; your hands will be empty. But they will leave behind them sin and pain, fastened on your neck like a yoke.
The Second Loss: You will suffer the penalty for betrayal of trust. For you will have wronged your own self by using the most precious tools on the most worthless objects.
The Third Loss: By casting down all the pre¬cious faculties of man to a level much inferior to the animals, you will have insulted and trans¬gressed against God's wisdom.
The Fourth Loss: In your weakness and pov¬erty, you will have placed the heavy burden of life on your weak shoulders, and will constantly groan and lament beneath the blows of transience and separation.
The Fifth Loss: You will have clothed in an ugly form, fit to open the gates of Hell in front of you, the fair gifts of the Compassionate One such as the intelligence, the heart, the eye and the tongue, given to you to make preparation for the foundations of everlasting life and eternal happiness in the Hereafter.