The Words | GLEAMS | 757
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Like Intention, Point of View May Transform Habitual Actions Into Worship

Note this point! Just as through intention, permissible habitual actions may become worship, so according to the point of view, the physical sciences may become knowledge of God.

If you study and reflect, that is, if you look at things as signifying one other than themselves,30 and in respect to art: "How beautifully the Maker made these, how well He did it!" instead of: "How beautiful it is;"

If you look from this point of view at the universe, the inscriptions of the Pre-Eternal Inscriber, His order and wisdom, and flashes of purpose and art will illuminate your doubts;

The sciences of the universe will become knowledge of God. But if you look at things as signifying themselves from the point of view of Nature, saying: "The thing looks to itself alone,"

If you look thus at the universe, whatever the extent of your scientific knowledge, it will be ignorance. Wretched truths become worthless in worthless

hands. The witnesses to this are many.

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At This Time the Shari'a Does Not Permit Us Affluence

When tasty foods call one, one should say: "It's as though I ate it." For someone who made this his rule, did not eat a mosque! 31

Formerly, most Muslims did not go hungry; they enjoyed comfortable living to an extent.

Now, however, most have declined into penury, and the Shari'a no longer permits the taking of pleasure.

The subsistence of the mass of Muslims, and most innocents, is simple. It is a thousand times preferable to follow them in their simple sustenance

Than to resemble the extravagant minority, or the few profligates, in their luxurious living.


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30. 'Mânâ-yı Harfi the Qur'anic view that things bear the meaning of one other than themselves, that is, point to their Maker, and His Names and attributes, like a letter or word signifies its writer, as opposed to 'Mânâ-yı İsmi',' the view that things signify themselves alone. [Tr.] 

31. There is a mosque in Istanbul called Sanki Yedim (It is as though I ate it). The man who said "It is as though I ate it" saved himself from his appetites and built the mosque with the proceeds.

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