THE ELEVENTH PHRASE:  “And with Him all things have their end”

Human beings are sent to this world, the realm of trial and examination, with the important duties of trading and acting as officials. After they have concluded their transactions, accomplished their duties, and completed their service, they will return and meet once more with their Generous Master and Glorious Creator who sent them forth  in  the  first  place.  Leaving  this  transient  realm,  they  will  be  honoured  and elevated to the presence of grandeur in the realm of permanence. That is to say, being delivered from the turbulence of causes and from the obscure veils of intermediaries, they will meet with their Merciful Sustainer without veil at the seat of His eternal majesty. Everyone will find his Creator, True Object of Worship, Sustainer, Lord, and Owner and will know Him directly. Thus, this phrase proclaims the following joyful news, which is greater than all the rest:

O man! Do you know where you are going and where you are being driven? As is stated at the end of the Thirt y-Second Word, a thousand years of happy life in this world cannot be compared to one hour of life in Paradise. And a thousand years of life in Paradise cannot be compared  to one hour’s vision of the sheer loveliness of the Beauteous  One  of Glory.  You  are  going  to  the  realm  of  His  mercy,  and  to  His presence.

The loveliness and beauty in all the creatures of this world and in those worldly beloveds  by which  you  are  so  stricken  and  obsessed  and  for  which  you  are  so desirous, are but a sort of shadow of the manifestation of His beauty and of the loveliness of His names; and all Paradise with all of its subtle wonders, a single manifestation of His mercy; and all longing and love and allurement and captivation, but a flash of the love of the Eternal Worshipful One and Everlasting Beloved. You are going to the sphere of His presence. You are being summoned to Paradise, which is an eternal feasting place. Since this is so, you should enter the grave not weeping, but smiling in expectation.

The phrase announces this good news as well: O man! Do not be apprehensive, imagining that you are going to extinction, non-existence, nothingness, darkness, oblivion,  decay, and dissolution,  and that  you will drown in multiplicity.  You are going  not  to  extinction,  but  to  permanence.  You  are  being  impelled  not  to  non- existence,  but to perpetual existence.  You are going to enter not darkness, but the world of light. And you are returning to your true owner, to the seat of the Pre-Eternal Monarch. You will not drown in multiplicity, you will take your rest in the realm of unity. You are bound not for separation, but for union.”