The Words | GLEAMS | 774
(724-779)

Now we must depart from here in the aircraft of endeavour. The light and breeze are there; the light of beauty is there. Ah, now here is the Uhud of Divine unity, that mighty mountain.

Here is the Judi of Islam, that wholesome mountain. Here is the Mountain of the Moon, the Qur'an of al-Azhar, the pure water of the Nile flows from that sublime source. Take a drink of its sweet water!

So blessed be God, the Best of Creators.43, * And their call shall close with "All praise be to God, Sustainer of All the Worlds! "44

Friend! Now cast away your imagination and don your reason! The first two ways are those of "those who have received Your anger" and "those who have gone astray."45

Their perils are numerous. On them is perpetual winter, their autumn and summer. Only one out of a hundred is saved, like Plato and Socrates.

The third way is easy, and direct and straight. Weak and strong are equal. Everyone may take it. The most comfortable is this: to be either martyr or 'ghazi'.

Now we come to the conclusion: Yes, the first two ways are the path and school of the genius of science. As for the guidance of the Qur'an, the third way is its straight path; it will take us there.

O God! Guide us to the straight path. * The path of those whom You have blessed, not those who have received Your anger, nor those who have gone astray.

 

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All True Pain Is In Misguidance, and All True Pleasure In Belief; A Mighty Truth Robed In Imagination

Prudent fellow-traveller! My friend! If you want to see clearly the differences beween the luminous way of the "straight path" and the gloomy path of "those who have received Your anger" and "those who have gone astray,"

Come, take your fancy and mount your imagination, together we shall go to the darkness of non-existence. We shall visit that vast grave, that city of the dead.

A Pre-Eternal Ail-Powerful One took us out of that place of darkness with His hand of power, mounted us on existence, and sent us to this world, this city without pleasures.

Now we have come to the world of existence, this fearful desert. Our eyes have opened, we've looked in the six directions.

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43. Qur'an, 23:14.
44. Qur'an, 10:10.
33. Qur'an, 11:123.

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