The Words | GLEAMS | 755
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If You Have Any Qualities, They Should Remain in the Dust of Concealment, So They May Flourish

O man of famous quality! Don't be oppressive by displaying your qualities; if they remain in concealment, you'll be a source of bounty and blessing for your brothers.

If you appear beneath all your brothers, and there is the possibility of its being you, it will attract respect to each of them.

But if you emerge from concealment and display yourself, although when beneath them you were revered, above, you become a tyrant. There you were a sun, here you cast shadows.

You belittle your brothers, and lose them their respect. That means, to display one's qualities and one's individuality is doubly tyrannical. If it is thus, that is how you will appear.

So what place remains for lying artificiality and hypocrisy, the 'personality,' and fame? This is a profound mystery, springing from Divine wisdom and perfect order.

An exceptional individual draws the veil of concealment over himself within his species or group, thus affording it value in the view of others, and making it appreciated.

Examples for you: saints among mankind, the appointed hour within a lifetime are unknown, indefinite. Concealed within Friday is the hour prayers are accepted. Hidden in Ramadan is the Night of Power. Concealed in the Most Beautiful Names is the elixir of the Greatest Name.

It is their indefiniteness that makes these examples awesome, this mystery, beautiful; they are proved through concealment.

For example, there is a balance in the appointed hour being vague; it holds true, whatever your circumstances.

The two pans of fear and hope, working for the next world or for this; imagined permanent existence imparts a pleasure to life.

Twenty years of uncertain life are preferable to a thousand-year lifetime the end of which is specified. For after half of it had passed, every passing hour you would be taking another step towards the gallows.

Your suffering would increase proportionately; it would afford you no solace; you would find no peace.

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It Is Mistaken To Feel Mercy and Anger Greater Than God's

Greater mercy than God's may not be bestowed. Greater wrath than God's may not be visited on something.

So leave matters to the All-Just and Compassionate One, for to be more compassionate causes you pain, and to be more wrathful is wrongful.

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