The Words | 18. Word | 239
(239-242)

The Eighteenth Word

[This Word consists of two Stations, of which the Second has not yet been written. There are three Points in the First Station.]

■ FIRST POINT

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Think not that those who exult in what they have thus contrived, and who love to he praised for what they have not done — think not that they will escape suffering: for grievous suffering does await them1

A Chastening Slap for my Evil-Commanding Soul:

O my foolish soul, charmed at glory, enamoured of fame, addicted to praise, and without equal in egotism! If it is a just claim that the source of the fig and its thousands of fruits is its tiny seed, and that all the grapes in their hundred bunches hanging from a dry branch of the vine are produced through the skill of the branch, and that those who benefit from them should praise and esteem the branch and the seed, then perhaps you have the right to be proud and conceited about the bounties with which you are loaded. But in fact you deserve to be constantly chided, because you are not like the seed and the branch: since you have the faculty of will, you reduce the value of those bounties through your pride. Through your conceit, you destroy them; through your ingratitude, you nullify them; through claiming them as your own, you lay hands on them unlawfully. Your duty is not to glory in your deeds, but to offer thanks. What is fit for you is not fame, but humility. Your right is not praise, it is repentance and to seek forgiveness. Your perfection lies not in self-centredness, but in recognizing God.

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1.Qur'an 3:188

No Voice

The Words